▪ I. craven, a. and n.
(ˈkreɪv(ə)n)
Forms: 3, 7 cravant (crau-), 5 crauaunde, 6 cravine, -yne, 7 cravand, 6– craven.
[In early ME. crauant (rare), etymology obscure.
Mr. Henry Nicol (Proc. Phil. Soc., Dec. 1879) suggested its identification with OF. cravanté, crevanté, crushed, overcome: see cravent v. But the total absence of the final é from the word, at a date when English still retained final e, makes a difficulty. Others have considered it a variant, in some way of creant (OF. creant, craant), which is a much more frequent word in the same sense in ME. The difficulty here is to account for the v (u), for which popular association with crave v. and its northern pa. pple. craved has been conjectured.]
A. adj.
† 1. Vanquished, defeated; or, perh., confessing himself vanquished. Obs.
| a 1225 St. Marher. 11 Ich am kempe ant he is crauant þet me wende to ouercumen. a 1225 Leg. Kath. 133 Al ha icneowen ham crauant & ourcumen, & cweðen hire þe meistrie & te menske al up. |
b. to cry craven: to acknowledge oneself vanquished, to give up the contest, surrender. Also fig.
| a 1634 Coke Inst. iii. (1648) 221 If he become recreant, that is, a crying Coward or Craven he shall for his perjury lose liberam legem. 1639 Fuller Holy War iv. xi. (1840) 196 He had been visited with a desperate sickness, insomuch that all art cried craven, as unable to help him. 1768 Blackstone Comm. III. 340 Or victory is obtained, if either champion proves recreant, that is, yields, and pronounces the horrible word of craven. 1805 Southey Madoc in W. xv, I..will make That slanderous wretch cry craven in the dust. 1869 Freeman Norm. Conq. (ed. 2) III. xv. 451 Neither King nor Duke was a man likely to cry craven. |
2. That owns himself beaten or afraid of his opponent; cowardly, weak-hearted, abjectly pusillanimous.
| ? a 1400 Morte Arth. 133 Haa! crauaunde knyghte! a cowarde þe semez! 1598 Drayton Heroic. Epist. v. 77 Those Beggers-Brats..Ally the Kingdome to their cravand Brood. 1602 Shakes. Ham. iv. iv. 40 Some craven scruple Of thinking too precisely on the event. 1656 Trapp Comm. 1 Cor. xv. 55 Death is here out-braved, called craven to his face. 1808 Scott Marm. v. xii, The poor craven bridegroom said never a word. 1848 Macaulay Hist. Eng. II 592 All other feelings had given place to a craven fear for his life. |
† b. Applied to a cock: see B 2. Obs.
| 1579 Lyly Euphues (Arb.) 106 Though hee bee a cocke of the game, yet Euphues is content to be crauen and crye creake. 1609 Bp. W. Barlow Answ. Nameless Cath. 164 This Crauen Cocke, after a bout or two..crowing a Conquest, being ready presently to Cry Creake. c 1622 Fletcher Love's Cure ii. ii. Wks. (Rtldg.) II. 161/1 Oh, craven-chicken of a cock o' th' game! 1649 G. Daniel Trinarch., Hen. V, xlix, Red Craven Cocks come in. |
B. n.
1. A confessed or acknowledged coward.
| 1581 J. Bell Haddon's Answ. Osor. 349 Monckes and Friers, and that whole generation of Cowled Cravines. 1599 Shakes. Hen. V, iv. vii. 139 Hee is a Crauen and a Villaine else. 1610 Rowlands Martin Mark-all 53 In regard of manhood a meere crauant. 1795 Southey Joan of Arc x. 458 Fly, cravens! leave your aged chief. 1860 Froude Hist. Eng. VI. 73 He climbed to the highest round of the political ladder, to fall and perish like a craven. |
2. A cock that ‘is not game’.
| 1596 Shakes. Tam. Shr. ii. i. 228 No Cocke of mine, you crow too like a crauen. 1611 Speed Hist. Gt. Brit. ix. iv. 14 Whereto the Pope, (no Crauant to be dared on his owne dung-hill) as stoutly answered. 1826 Gentl. Mag. Feb. 157/1 It is certainly a hard case that a fighting-cock should kill an unoffending craven. |
C. Comb., as craven-hearted, craven-like adj. & adv.
| 1615 Crooke Body of Man 245 All creatures whose Testicles are hidde within should be faynt and crauen-hearted. 1705 Hickeringill Priest-Craft Wks. (1716) III. 56 Not as Gentlemen and Scholars, but (Craven like) calling upon the Jailors, the Sumners, etc. 1836 Whittier Song of the Free i, Shrink we all craven-like, When the storm gathers? |
▪ II. ˈcraven, v.
[f. prec.]
To make craven or cowardly, to render spiritless through fear. Hence ˈcravened ppl. a.
| 1611 Shakes. Cymb. iii. iv. 80 Against Selfe-slaughter There is a prohibition so Diuine That crauens my weake hand. 1645 Quarles Sol. Recant. v. 81 This enslaves Our craven'd Spirits so. 1683 Dryden Dk. Guise iv. iii, Awed and cravened, as he had been spelled. 1826 A. E. Bray De Foix xix. (1884) 219 There are circumstances which can craven a spirit that never shook before the sword. |