cow 復習

　北朝鮮は、オーストラリア議会に簡書を送り、トランプ米大統領の脅しに屈しない姿勢を表しました。
Pyongyang warns Trump’s threats are a ‘big miscalculation’ in letter to Australian lawmakers

SYDNEY (Reuters) — North Korea has sent a letter to Australia’s Parliament, warning it is a nuclear power and will not be cowed by U.S. President Donald Trump’s threats to destroy it, according to a copy of the letter published in an Australian newspaper on Friday.

“If Trump thinks that he would bring the DPRK, a nuclear power, to its knees through nuclear war threat, it will be a big miscalculation and an expression of ignorance,” said a facsimile of the letter, published by The Sydney Morning Herald and verified by Australia’s Foreign Ministry.

“Trump threatened to totally destroy the DPRK ... it is an extreme act of threatening to totally destroy the whole world.”

http://the-japan-news.com/news/article/0004015243

　取り上げる単語は"cow"です。名詞の「牛」という意味が一般的ですが、ここでは動詞で別の意味で使われています。『ジーニアス英和辞典』第４版（大修館）で調べてみると、「（人）を（言葉、暴力などで）脅す、（人）を脅して〜させる」とありました。LDOCEでは、"to frighten someone in order to make them do something"と定義されてます。しばしば"down"や"into"と共起して句動詞として用いられます。また、同義語には"intimidate"があります。(Akim)