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Coward vs Pawl - What's the difference?

coward | pawl |

As a proper noun coward

is .

As a noun pawl is

a pivoted catch designed to fall into a notch on a ratchet wheel so as to allow movement in only one direction (eg on a windlass or in a clock mechanism), or alternatively to move the wheel in one direction.

As a verb pawl is

to stop with a pawl.

coward

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • A person who lacks courage.
  • * 1856 : (Gustave Flaubert), (Madame Bovary), Part II Chapter IV, translated by Eleanor Marx-Aveling
  • He tortured himself to find out how he could make his declaration to her, and always halting between the fear of displeasing her and the shame of being such a coward , he wept with discouragement and desire. Then he took energetic resolutions, wrote letters that he tore up, put it off to times that he again deferred.

    Synonyms

    * chicken * See also

    Derived terms

    * cowardly * cowardice

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Cowardly.
  • *, II.17:
  • *:It is a coward and servile humour, for a man to disguise and hide himselfe under a maske, and not dare to shew himselfe as he is.
  • * Shakespeare
  • He raised the house with loud and coward cries.
  • * Prior
  • Invading fears repel my coward joy.
  • (heraldry, of a lion) Borne in the escutcheon with his tail doubled between his legs.
  • English words suffixed with -ard

    pawl

    English

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A pivoted catch designed to fall into a notch on a ratchet wheel so as to allow movement in only one direction (e.g. on a windlass or in a clock mechanism), or alternatively to move the wheel in one direction.
  • * 1994 , Cormac McCarthy, The Crossing :
  • The nails in the rim of the wheel went ratcheting over the leather pawl and the wheel slowed and came to a stop and the woman turned to the crowd and smiled.
  • * 1910 , Victor Appleton, Tom Swift and his Motorcycle
  • A pawl is a sort of catch that fits into a ratchet wheel and pushes it around, or it may be used as a catch to prevent the backward motion of a windlass or the wheel on a derrick.

    Derived terms

    * pawl bitt * pawl rim

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To stop with a pawl.
  • Derived terms

    * pawl the capstan