Craven means cowardly. But people use it to mean grasping, social-climbing, self-interested and also toadying, creeping, cringing, crawling, self-abasing, fawning, slavish – all things you might do out of fear.

"It is clear that the charity campaigner role is the one in which [Heather] Mills most enjoys being cast, and yet her more recent comments have often made her seem unwittingly craven and/or odd. ... For those who were keen to portray Mills as a gold-digger, her poor childhood was obviously a boon - she fitted usefully, vindictively, into the image of the craven working-class woman, clawing her way out of hardship into profit." Kira Cochrane Guardian 20 Mar 2009 She thinks it means social climbing, but how can you be “unwittingly” social-climbing, ie without knowing it? Does she mean Mills didn’t know she was betraying herself?

“a social climber, vulgar and craven, a philistine” Web

“craven media hound” Lucy Mangan, Guardian May 28, 2008

They were accused of “worshipping a craven idol, a severed head called Baphomet” National Geographic programme on the Templars, getting confused with “graven image”, which just means “carved sculpture”.

“It was done for craven financial reasons.” TV programme on 3D movies