cowardly; spineless; weak-willed
Formal or literary term describing a person's character as lacking courage or resolve. Rare in everyday speech; more common synonyms include 臆病 (おくびょう) or 弱気 (よわき).
With a cowardly attitude, he couldn't argue back against anyone.
その政治家は怯懦のそしりを免れなかった。
The politician could not escape the criticism of being spineless.
怯懦 means cowardice, the direct literary opposite of the martial courage expressed by 武勇.
Literary kanji form; rarely used in modern writing. The word itself is formal and uncommon.
The kanji 怯 means 'fear' or 'cowardice', and 懦 means 'weak' or 'timid'. The compound is a Sino-Japanese word (kango) combining these two characters to express a lack of courage. The exact historical derivation is uncertain, but it follows a common pattern of pairing synonymous characters to form an abstract noun.