pearl-clutching

English

Etymology

From the image of a genteel woman clutching her pearl necklace in shock.

Pronunciation

• Audio (Australia):

  (file)

Adjective

pearl-clutching (comparative more pearl-clutching, superlative most pearl-clutching)

1. (idiomatic, derogatory) Prim, prudish, or easily offended.
   • 2007, Amanda Marcotte, It's a Jungle Out There: The Feminist Survival Guide to Politically Inhospitable Environments, Seal Press, →ISBN, page 141:

     When John Kerry “outed” Mary Cheney in a 2004 presidential debate, it was already well known that Mary Cheney was a lesbian. You can't out the already out, no matter what pearl-clutching pundits would have you believe.

   • 2010, April Winchell, Regretsy: Where DIY Meets WTF, Villard Books, →ISBN, page 131:

     Even the biggest doe-eyed, pearl-clutching Etsy muffin has to find some way to make it okay to be negative, because we have no choice.

   • 2013, Jeff Smith, Jessica Abel, Matt Madden, editors, The Best American Comics 2013, Houghton Mifflin, →ISBN, page 362:

     There's something truly irresistible about the pearl-clutching cartoons that came out during the time people thought women on bicycles were single-handedly going to bring society to ruin.

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:pearl-clutching.

Synonyms

• pearl-clutchy

Noun

pearl-clutching (countable and uncountable, plural pearl-clutchings)

1. Alternative form of pearl clutching.
   • 2026 February 19, Máire Treasa Ní Cheallaigh, “Máire Treasa Ní Cheallaigh: A few missed school days in Marbella is nothing. More serious absences need our attention”, in Irish Independent‎^[1]:

     Poverty, housing instability, hunger, mental health struggles and addiction can all contribute to more vulnerable pupils missing out on education, so spare us the annual pearl-clutching about taking the kids out of school to go on a sun holiday

Related terms

• pearl-clutcher
• clutch one's pearls