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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Effeminate \Ef*fem"i*nate\, verb (used with an object) [imp. & p. p. {Effeminated}; p. pr. & vb. n. {Effeminating}.] To make womanish; to make soft and delicate; to weaken.
It will not corrupt or effeminate children's minds. --Locke.
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Effeminate \Ef*fem"i*nate\, adjective [L. effeminatus, p. p. of effeminare to make a woman of; ex out + femina a woman. See {Feminine}, adjective]
1. Having some characteristic of a woman, as delicacy, luxuriousness, etc.; soft or delicate to an unmanly degree; womanish; weak.
The king, by his voluptuous life and mean marriage, became effeminate, and less sensible of honor. --Bacon.
An effeminate and unmanly foppery. --Bp. Hurd.
2. Womanlike; womanly; tender; -- in a good sense.
Gentle, kind, effeminate remorse. --Shak.
Note: Effeminate and womanish are generally used in a reproachful sense; feminine and womanly, applied to women, are epithets of propriety or commendation.
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Effeminate \Ef*fem"i*nate\, verb (used without an object) To grow womanish or weak.
In a slothful peace both courage will effeminate and manners corrupt. --Pope.
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
effeminate
adjective
1: having unsuitable feminine qualities [syn: {emasculate}, {epicene}, {cissy}, {sissified}, {sissyish}, {sissy}]
2: characterized by excessive softness or self-indulgence; "an effeminate civilization" [syn: {weak}]
From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:
60 Moby Thesaurus words for "effeminate": AC-DC, amphierotic, autoerotic, bent, bisexed, bisexual, breakable, brittle, butch, campy, cheap-jack, chicken, cobwebby, crumbly, dainty, delicate, delicately weak, deviant, flimsy, fragile, frail, frangible, gay, gimcrack, gimcracky, gossamery, homoerotic, homosexual, jerry, jerry-built, lesbian, light, lightweight, mannish, muliebrous, namby-pamby, old-womanish, papery, pasteboardy, perverted, prissy, puny, queer, sapphic, shattery, sissified, sissy, sissyish, sleazy, slight, soft, tacky, transvestite, tribadistic, unmanly, unsubstantial, weak, wispy, womanish, womanly
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Definitions retrieved from local copies of the freely distributed DICT client/server software and databases. Click here for database copyright information. - KM |