Fighting to give cowards heart (3)

I believe the answer is:

war

'fighting' is the definition.
(thesaurus)

'cowards heart' is the wordplay.
'heart' indicates the central letters.
The centre of 'cowards' is 'WAR'.

'to give' is the link.

(Other definitions for war that I've seen before include "State of armed struggle" , "series of engagements" , "Sustained conflict" , "Armed hostility" , "Fight" .)

I've seen this clue in the Evening Standard.

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