Dictionary.net

• hild'ing, n. a mean, cowardly person, a dastard.--adj. cowardly, spiritless. [Prob. hield, to bend down.]

1908 - Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary of the English Language
By Thomas Davidson

• A sorry, paltry, cowardly fellow; it is used like wife for a mean woman.

1790 - A Complete Dictionary of the English Language
By Thomas Sheridan