as in cowardly
having or showing a shameful lack of courage
his dastardly conduct in a critical moment haunted him for the rest of his life
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Recent Examples of dastardly
In the Disney+ series of the same name, rebellious princess Kit (Bottoms’ Ruby Cruz) sets off on a dangerous quest to rescue her twin brother from dastardly forces of evil.
—
Abby Monteil, Them., 15 Oct. 2025
But Gumrukcu, 42, failed to pull off his most dastardly trick.
—Sean Neumann, PEOPLE, 7 Oct. 2025
Even Hinch, who has done his best to project calm and confidence during this dastardly stretch, made one of his most questionable decisions in five years managing the Tigers.
—Cody Stavenhagen, New York Times, 24 Sep. 2025
Blanc is trying to put together a puzzle, but most of its pieces are rooted in the human foibles that drive people to do dastardly things.
—Owen Gleiberman, Variety, 7 Sep. 2025
See All Example Sentences for dastardly
Recent Examples of Synonyms for dastardly
Adjective
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Therefore, the cowardly officer could’ve later arrested her or simply disabled the vehicle by shooting out a tire with the same accuracy.—
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Just cowardly, shameful, dishonest people.—
Adjective
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Others are afraid to leave their homes to do mundane things like getting groceries or shoveling snow and clearing ice from their sidewalks.—
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The lawsuit by the city and state says the campaign had a chilling effect, making residents afraid to leave home.—
Adjective
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So does the craven poor judgment required by any public officials who hire him.—
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Unlike their cynical and craven counterparts in Texas, a majority of Indiana Republican state senators understood that short-term electoral gains weren’t worth sacrificing their principles.—
Adjective
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The birds were scared away by a resident’s dog.—
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As Hodges stood there, scared and vulnerable, the man grabbed his baton and bashed him on the head with it, rupturing his lip and smashing his skull.—
Adjective
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The article quotes two current professors but doesn’t explore why other faculty members critical of the school were too frightened to speak on the record in what Corcoran described as a campus finally open to different opinions.—
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Freedom from fear mattered because frightened societies are easily manipulated.—
Adjective
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Some also have lost lawyers, dismayed by the pusillanimous behavior of their leaders.—
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The second believed the United States could attain comprehensive security through military-technological means and saw diplomacy as a quixotic or pusillanimous enterprise that dishonored and weakened the country.—
Adjective
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Yiyoguaje sported a spectacular headdress of layered feathers that cascaded down his back, blue and pink, green and yellow, topped by three long macaw feathers standing up like spears.—
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While many greens can skew yellow or murky, its blue base keeps the color clean and sophisticated.—
Adjective
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That larger significance is remarkably unheroic and fatalistic.—
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In the world of The Boys, based on the gleefully scabrous 2000s indie comic-book series of the same name by writer Garth Ennis and artist Darick Robertson, superheroes are real, pop-culture-dominating, and with rare exceptions, entirely unheroic.—
Cite this Entry
“Dastardly.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/dastardly. Accessed 20 Jan. 2026.
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