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• n  an abject coward
• s  characterized by complete cowardliness

• Narrating his own story, Barry so obviously exaggerates his claims to exemplary behavior that the reader perceives he is essentially a braggart and poltroon.
• Hope is still the fumbling poltroon, this time a ham actor who masquerades as a gentleman's gentleman in England, then becomes a real valet masquerading in the Wild West as a .
• The young commander, who must absolve himself from the taint of cowardice inherited from poltroon father, is torn between love and his duty to stick by his ship in a storm.

• craven
• recreant

Quotes

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• Allan Rock in National Post (registration) (blog)
  In a classic example of the pot calling the kettle black, Mr. Rock wrote that "Ann Coulter is a mean-spirited, small-minded, foul-mouthed poltroon : 'the loud mouth that bespeaks the vacant mind.' She is an ill-informed and deeply offensive shill...