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effete

   Also found in: Encyclopedia 0.21 sec.
ef·fete  (-ft)
adj.
1. Depleted of vitality, force, or effectiveness; exhausted: the final, effete period of the baroque style.
2. Marked by self-indulgence, triviality, or decadence: an effete group of self-professed intellectuals.
3. Overrefined; effeminate.
4. No longer productive; infertile.

[Latin efftus, worn out, exhausted : ex-, ex- + ftus, bearing young, pregnant; see dh(i)- in Indo-European roots.]

ef·fetely adv.
ef·feteness n.

effete [if-feet]
Adjective
weak, powerless, and decadent [Latin effetus exhausted by bearing young]
ThesaurusLegend:  Synonyms Related Words Antonyms
Adj.1.effete - marked by excessive self-indulgence and moral decay; "a decadent life of excessive money and no sense of responsibility"; "a group of effete self-professed intellectuals"
indulgent - characterized by or given to yielding to the wishes of someone ; "indulgent grandparents"

effete
adjective weak, cowardly, feeble, ineffectual, decrepit, spineless, enfeebled, weak-kneed (informal) enervated, overrefined, chicken-hearted, wimpish or wimpy (informal)


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? Mentioned in ? References in classic literature
 
In the meantime you can relieve your feelings by cursing the one-man power and the effete monarchies of Europe.
Uncouth, perhaps, and brutal, too, if judged too harshly by the standards of effete twentieth- century civilization, but withal noble, dignified, chivalrous, and loveable.
The knoll was there, but the Hunnish brambles had overrun and all but obliterated its effete grasses; and the patrician garden-violet had capitulated to his plebeian brother--perhaps had merely reverted to his original type.
 
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