wom·an·ish

(wo͝om′ə-nĭsh)

adj.

1. Of, characteristic of, or suitable to a woman, especially when considered inferior to a man: "He had long known ... that Burgundy is better than that womanish drink, champagne" (Sinclair Lewis).

2. Imitative or suggestive of a woman rather than a man: "With a womanish gesture he lifted a lock of silver hair from his forehead and smoothed it back on his head" (Carson McCullers).

wom′an·ish·ly adv.

wom′an·ish·ness n.

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.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun

womanishness - 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, sissiness, unmanliness, 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

womanishness

noun

The quality of being effeminate:

effeminacy, effeminateness, femininity, sissiness, unmanliness.

Translations

femminilità

Mentioned in

References in classic literature

Yes; you sometimes have to answer a woman according to her womanishness, just as you have to answer a fool according to his folly.

View in context

And is there not illiberality and avarice in robbing a corpse, and also a degree of meanness and womanishness in making an enemy of the dead body when the real enemy has flown away and left only his fighting gear behind him,--is not this rather like a dog who cannot get at his assailant, quarrelling with the stones which strike him instead?

View in context

Purple, with a high waist and a ruffled pleat that suggested innocence and womanishness at once.

Dazzling Futures and Other Fairy Tales

The personality traits are "womanish." Africana womanist Dorothy Randall Tsuruta (2012) notes that womanishness is characterized by gumption.

Bitch you must be crazy: representations of mental illness in Ntozake Shange's for Colored Girls Who Consider Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf (1976)