as in cowardly
having or showing a shameful lack of courage
the new biography casts the romanticized outlaw in a much more vicious and unheroic light
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Recent Examples of unheroic
That larger significance is remarkably unheroic and fatalistic.
—
Gabriel Winslow-Yost, Harper's Magazine, 23 Sep. 2024
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.
—Brian Hiatt, Rolling Stone, 13 June 2024
From the costumes to the makeup, from visual effects to sound design, the goal was to be as realistic as possible and underscore the movie’s anti-war and deliberately unheroic depiction of an ordinary soldier in battle.
—Scott Roxborough, The Hollywood Reporter, 10 Mar. 2023
John’s figures are wood stained in unheroic reality.
—Bob Guccione Jr, SPIN, 17 Feb. 2023
But rational reasoning is no way to reach Josephine, as the adults around her discover one by one — beginning with Spencer, played with commendably unheroic tetchiness by Harington, as his sensitive support gradually sours into parental oneupmanship.
—Guy Lodge, Variety, 2 Feb. 2023
Its stars still burn brightly—perhaps especially so in our own gruesomely unheroic times—with Ernest Shackleton considered by many to be the brightest star of them all.
—Sara Wheeler, WSJ, 11 Jan. 2022
And if the moderate theory appears cautious and unheroic, well, it's got nothing on the unheroic inactivity of most Republicans hoping to defang Trumpism, who have convinced themselves that the way to avoid a worse replay of the 2020 endgame is not to fight him openly at all.
—Ross Douthat New York Times, Star Tribune, 7 June 2021
Recent Examples of Synonyms for unheroic
Adjective
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In Humphrey Cobb’s 1935 novel about a trio of French soldiers condemned to death at random by their cowardly superiors, Kubrick found a perfect vessel for his obsessions.—
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Deputy Brown’s courage in the face of an unprovoked and cowardly attack reflects the very best of our profession.—
Adjective
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The opposition ranged from clinical and code-based to angry and afraid.—
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From animal prints to floral patterns and everything in between, don’t be afraid to let loose and have fun with patterns in your space.—
Adjective
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Nearly a week later, Scott and Kodi Allred, a couple traveling to visit their son at the University of Northern Colorado, saw the frightened black dachshund darting along the same stretch of road near Elk Mountain.—
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Sometimes, a frightened reaction is inexplicable.—
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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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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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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In a year of gutless moves by major media companies, this may be the most gutless.—
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Listen, by doing it this way, with a press release instead of a press conference, Rose looks both gutless and gutty at the same time.—
Adjective
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This is where that dastardly Southern contraction is not our friend.—
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Meanwhile, Glinda has become the literal poster child for goodness, a part of the propaganda machine against Elphaba honchoed by the Wizard and the dastardly Madame Morrible (Michelle Yeoh).—
Cite this Entry
“Unheroic.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/unheroic. Accessed 13 Jan. 2026.
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