sis·sy

(sĭs′ē)

n. pl. sis·sies

1. A person regarded as timid or cowardly.

2. Offensive A boy or man regarded as effeminate.

3. Informal Sister.

[ Diminutive of sis.]

sis′si·fied′ (-fīd′) adj.

sis′si·ness, sis′sy·ness n.

sis′sy·ish adj.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

sissiness

sissyness

the quality of being a sissy; effeminacy

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun

sissiness - the trait of being effeminate (derogatory of a man); "the students associated science with masculinity and arts with effeminacy"; "Spartans accused Athenians of effeminateness"; "he was shocked by the softness of the atmosphere surrounding the young prince, arising from the superfluity of the femininity that guided him"

effeminacy, effeminateness, unmanliness, womanishness, softness

femininity, muliebrity - the trait of behaving in ways considered typical for women

emasculation - loss of power and masculinity

depreciation - a communication that belittles somebody or something

sissiness

or sissyness
noun

The quality of being effeminate:

effeminacy, effeminateness, femininity, unmanliness, womanishness.

Mentioned in

References in periodicals archive

The broadcaster also said that English is the language of combat and not of sissiness.

Broadcaster Teddy Locsin Jr. scoffs at use of Tagalog in debate

Vidal's view that Roosevelt's affinity for violence was the consequence of an irresistible drive to transcend his inherent "sissiness" is difficult to ignore, and quite subtly tells us something about more brutal leaders far and wide, not least the current president of Syria.

Gore Vidal's certain idea of America

Likewise, Buzz's appearing nude except for an apron and a pair of high heels reduces to comic absurdity an activist's objection to the damage done to the larger civil rights movement by an individual gay man's performance of his sissiness. And in Some Men (2007), McNally dramatizes the alienation that politically correct discourse arouses when a pair of young Queer Studies majors at Vassar interview two long-partnered men now in their sixties whom the students consider to be "part of the pre-Stonewall oppressed and non-liberated generation" (71).

Introduction: the politics of gay identity