pantywaist
Definition from Wiktionary, a free dictionary
Contents |
[edit] English
[edit] Adjective
pantywaist (not comparable)
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Positive |
Superlative |
- (informal, dated, especially of a male person) Weak, timid, effeminate, ineffectual.
- His rough, burly father was mortified by the lad's pantywaist behavior.
[edit] Noun
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Singular |
Plural |
pantywaist (plural pantywaists)
- (informal, dated) A children's undergarment composed, in part, of panties attached to a waistband.
- 1929, "The Altman Sale of Children's Underwear" (display advertisement), The New York Times, 28 Apr, p. 16.
- Lace trimmed panty waists—50 cents.
- 1929, "The Altman Sale of Children's Underwear" (display advertisement), The New York Times, 28 Apr, p. 16.
- (pejorative, dated) An ineffectual, weak, or timid person, especially a boy or young man; a sissy.
- 1943, Hal Borland, "'Baedekers' for Our Fighters: So you're going abroad, says Uncle Sam," The New York Times, 24 Jan, p. SM14.
- Don't be misled by the British tendency to be soft-spoken and polite. The English language didn't spread across the oceans and over the mountains and jungles and swamps because these people were pantywaists.
- 1943, Hal Borland, "'Baedekers' for Our Fighters: So you're going abroad, says Uncle Sam," The New York Times, 24 Jan, p. SM14.
[edit] References
- “pantywaist” in Dictionary.com Unabridged, v1.0.1, Lexico Publishing Group, 2006.
- Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., 1989.
