valour
part of speech
noun (valour – uncountable; US spelling: valor)
meaning for a pupil
1) Great courage, especially in battle or danger. tree →
2) (old) Worth or bravery shown in brave deeds. tree →
sense in the lessons
A grand old word found in stories about knights and heroes, and in war history: medals «for valour», like the Victoria Cross, which says «For Valour». In The Wind in the Willows the animals fight bravely to win back Toad Hall, and Toad boasts of his valour afterwards. Phrases: «acts of valour», «for valour», «discretion is the better part of valour» (it is wiser to be careful than to be brave in a foolish way – from Shakespeare's Falstaff).
examples
- The Victoria Cross is awarded «For Valour». tree →
- The knight was famous for his valour. tree →
- The firefighters showed great valour in saving the family. tree →
- «Discretion is the better part of valour,» said the Rat, and they ran away. tree →
- Many soldiers won medals for valour in the war. tree →
- Songs were sung about her valour. tree →
- Adrastus now gave his troops the word of command to storm the city, and they rushed forward to the attack with great valour. tree →
note
UK, Ireland, Australia, NZ, Canada spelling: valour; USA: valor. Uncountable. Adjective: valiant.
In the corpora
- Now Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty man of valour, and he was the son of a harlot; and Gilead begot Jephthah.
- And there fell of Benjamin eighteen thousand men; all these were men of valour.
- A woman of valour who can find? for her price is far above rubies.
- Also the mighty men of valour: Asahel the brother of Joab, Elhanan the son of Dodo of Beth-lehem;
- And they helped David against the troop, for they were all mighty men of valour, and were captains in the host.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «valour» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.