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
Of all the films vying for honors in this year’s awards season, only one heralds the return of not just one of cinema’s most iconic duos, but one of its most dastardly villains.
—
Alex Ritman, Variety, 9 Jan. 2025
For starters, Rate-A-Queen is back — no surprise after the success of the dastardly Plane Jane versus the hero Nymphia Wind.
—Jason P. Frank, Vulture, 3 Jan. 2025
There is a chance too that an outsider broke into the internals of AI and made dastardly changes.
—Lance Eliot, Forbes, 27 Dec. 2024
LifeLock’s Home Title Monitoring warns of several variations of that dastardly attack.
—PCMAG, 27 Nov. 2024
See All Example Sentences for dastardly
Alex Ritman, Variety, 9 Jan. 2025
For starters, Rate-A-Queen is back — no surprise after the success of the dastardly Plane Jane versus the hero Nymphia Wind.
—Jason P. Frank, Vulture, 3 Jan. 2025
There is a chance too that an outsider broke into the internals of AI and made dastardly changes.
—Lance Eliot, Forbes, 27 Dec. 2024
LifeLock’s Home Title Monitoring warns of several variations of that dastardly attack.
—PCMAG, 27 Nov. 2024
See All Example Sentences for dastardly
Recent Examples of Synonyms for dastardly
Adjective
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Denying students access to our complete history is fundamentally cowardly.—
Britt Hogue,
Baltimore Sun,
26 Feb. 2025
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Two beloved members of the Tijuana journalism community were killed in two separate cowardly attacks.—
Tania Navarro,
San Diego Union-Tribune,
7 Mar. 2025
Adjective
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While taking your room’s layout and square footage into account, don't be afraid to think outside the box: how can your sitting room function for you?—
Shivani Vyas,
Better Homes & Gardens,
22 Mar. 2025
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Pay attention to your customers, listen closely, and don’t be afraid to test small, strategic changes.—
Melissa Houston,
Forbes,
22 Mar. 2025
Adjective
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In the new showbiz comedy The Studio, Bryan Cranston has a recurring role as Griffin Mill, the craven movie executive played by Tim Robbins in the 1992 film The Player.—
Alan Sepinwall,
Rolling Stone,
25 Mar. 2025
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In any event Marshall, a craven idiot, is a raucous, vulgar sendup of the bedrock American principle of Manifest Destiny.—
Tom Gliatto,
People.com,
7 Mar. 2025
Adjective
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As the scream queen, there’s a role that Sam’s character can play, either angry at Paul, fighting back, or super scared.—
Barry Levitt,
Rolling Stone,
15 Mar. 2025
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TikTok is eating our lunch, and executives are scared.—
Brian Davids,
The Hollywood Reporter,
13 Mar. 2025
Adjective
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Inside, the staff scrambles for cover and a frightened woman and child are seen hiding behind a buffet counter.—
Mark Price,
Miami Herald,
11 Mar. 2025
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Staying apolitical in his work, Lynch expressed the personal idiosyncrasy that reflected his upbringing in Midwest America (born in Missoula, Mont., and of Finnish-Danish heritage) as well as his private, frightened knowledge of national terror.—
Armond White,
National Review,
17 Jan. 2025
Adjective
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There was no fanfare — indeed no announcement or change in Oscar rules — but a firestorm of controversy resulted, followed by the Academy’s cowardly, pusillanimous silence on the issue.—
Armond White,
National Review,
5 Mar. 2025
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Mark Kelly Americans who are rightfully appalled by the pusillanimous response to anti-Semitism on college campuses have been pulling their donations and calling for restrictions on anti-Israel student groups.—
Arthur Levitt,
WSJ,
12 Nov. 2023
Adjective
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The look features bright coral eyeshadow covering the eyelid, a fuchsia shade in the crease, and a swipe of fluorescent yellow eyeliner on the outside half of the eye and right under the brow.—
Andrea Park,
Teen Vogue,
20 July 2017
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Three prominent Austin chefs teamed up with the Youngblood family to build a new restaurant from scratch that looks like a legacy chicken dinner house, down to the bright blue-and-yellow colors and the helpings of hot yeast rolls with honey.—
Bud Kennedy,
star-telegram,
19 July 2017
Adjective
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That larger significance is remarkably unheroic and fatalistic.—
Gabriel Winslow-Yost,
Harper's Magazine,
23 Sep. 2024
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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.—
Brian Hiatt,
Rolling Stone,
13 June 2024
Cite this Entry
“Dastardly.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/dastardly. Accessed 31 Mar. 2025.
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