POLTROON, or POLTRON, a coward or dastard, wanting the courage requisite to perform anything great or noble. The word is borrowed from the French, who, according to Salmasius, derived it a pollice truncato; because anciently those who wished to avoid going to the wars cut off their thumb. But Ménage, with more probability, derives it from the Italian poltrone, and that from poltro, a bed; because timorous and pusillanimous people take pleasure in lying a-bed. Others, again, derive the word from the Italian poltro, a colt, because of that creature's readiness to run away.