effeminate

• POS: Adjective
• HYPHEN: ef=fem=i=nate

CIDE DICTIONARY

effeminate, a. [L. effeminatus, p. p. of effeminare to make a woman of; ex out + femina a woman. See Feminine, a.].

•  Having some characteristic of a woman, as delicacy, luxuriousness, etc.; soft or delicate to an unmanly degree; womanish; weak.  [1913 Webster]

  "The king, by his voluptuous life and mean marriage, became effeminate, and less sensible of honor."  [1913 Webster]

  "An effeminate and unmanly foppery."  [1913 Webster]
•  Womanlike; womanly; tender; -- in a good sense.  [1913 Webster]

  " Effeminate and womanish are generally used in a reproachful sense; feminine and womanly, applied to women, are epithets of propriety or commendation."  [1913 Webster]

  "Gentle, kind, effeminate remorse."  [1913 Webster]

effeminate, v. t. 

 To make womanish; to make soft and delicate; to weaken.  [1913 Webster]
"It will not corrupt or effeminate children's minds."  [1913 Webster]

effeminate, v. i. 

 To grow womanish or weak.  [1913 Webster]
"In a slothful peace both courage will effeminate and manners corrupt."  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

effeminate, adj. (of a man) feminine in appearance or manner; unmasculine.

Derivative

effeminacy n. effeminately adv.

Etymology

ME f. L effeminatus past part. of effeminare (as EX-(1), femina woman)

THESAURUS

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

ROGET THESAURUS

effeminate

Weakness

N weakness, debility, atony, relaxation, languor, enervation, impotence, infirmity, effeminacy, feminality, fragility, flaccidity, inactivity, anaemia, bloodlessness, deficiency of blood, poverty of blood, declension of strength, loss of strength, failure of strength, delicacy, invalidation, decrepitude, asthenia, adynamy, cachexy, cachexia, sprain, strain, reed, thread, rope of sand, house of cards, softling, weakling, infant, youth, weak, feeble, debile, impotent, relaxed, unnerved sapless, strengthless, powerless, weakly, unstrung, flaccid, adynamic, asthenic, nervous, soft, effeminate, feminate, womanly, frail, fragile, shattery, flimsy, unsubstantial, insubstantial, gimcrack, gingerbread, rickety, creaky, creaking, cranky, craichy, drooping, tottering, broken, lame, withered, shattered, shaken, crazy, shaky, palsied, decrepit, languid, poor, infirm, faint, faintish, sickly, dull, slack, evanid, spent, short-winded, effete, weather-beaten, decayed, rotten, worn, seedy, languishing, wasted, washy, laid low, pulled down, the worse for wear, unstrengthened, unsupported, unaided, unassisted, aidless, defenseless, cantilevered (support), on its last legs, weak as a child, weak as a baby, weak as a chicken, weak as a cat, weak as a rat, weak as water, weak as water gruel, weak as gingerbread, weak as milk and water, colorless, non sum qualis eram.

Cowardice

N cowardice, pusillanimity, cowardliness, timidity, effeminacy, poltroonery, baseness, dastardness, dastardy, abject fear, funk, Dutch courage, fear, white feather, faint heart, cold feet, yellow streak, coward, poltroon, dastard, sneak, recreant, shy cock, dunghill cock, coistril, milksop, white liver, lily liver, nidget, one that cannot say 'boo' to a goose, slink, Bob Acres, Jerry Sneak, alarmist, terrorist, pessimist, runagate, coward, cowardly, fearful, shy, timid, timorous, skittish, poor- spirited, spiritless, soft, effeminate, weak-minded, infirm of purpose, weak-hearted, fainthearted, chickenhearted, henhearted, lilyhearted, pigeon-hearted, white- livered, lily-livered, milk-livered, milksop, smock-faced, unable to say 'boo' to a goose, dastard, dastardly, base, craven, sneaking, dunghill, recreant, unwarlike, unsoldier-like, in face a lion but in heart a deer, unmanned, frightened, Int, sauve qui peut!, every man for himself!, devil take the hindmost!, ante tubam trepidat, one's courage oozing out, degeneres animos timor arguit.

Woman

N woman, she, her, female, petticoat, feminality, muliebrity, womanhood, womankind, the sex, the fair, fair sex, softer sex, weaker vessel, dame, madam, madame, mistress, Mrs, lady, donna belle, matron, dowager, goody, gammer, Frau, frow, Vrouw, rani, good woman, good wife, squaw, wife, matronage, matronhood, bachelor girl, new woman, feminist, suffragette, suffragist, nymph, wench, grisette, girl, sissy, betty, cot betty, cotquean, henhussy, mollycoddle, muff, old woman, hen, bitch, sow, doe, roe, mare, she goat, Nanny goat, tabita, ewe, cow, lioness, tigress, vixen, gynecaeum, estrogen, oestrogen, consanguinity &c, paternity, lesbian, dyke, female, she-, feminine, womanly, ladylike, matronly, maidenly, wifely, womanish, effeminate, unmanly, gynecic, gynaecic, Pron, she, her, hers, ', a perfect woman nobly planned, a lovely lady garmented in white, das Ewig-Weibliche zieht uns hinan, earth's noblest thing, a woman perfected, es de vidrio la mujer, she moves a goddess and she looks a queen, the beauty of a lovely woman is like music, varium et mutabile semper femina, woman is the lesser man.