(a.) Having some characteristic of a woman, as delicacy, luxuriousness, etc.; soft or delicate to an unmanly degree; womanish; weak.
(a.) Womanlike; womanly; tender; -- in a good sense.
(v. t.) To make womanish; to make soft and delicate; to weaken.
(v. i.) To grow womanish or weak.
Example Sentences:
(1) These bribes and rewards, often feminine or effeminate ornaments, not only beautify the already gorgeous bodies of young men, but also label and augment their value and their power.
(2) Growing up on the Norris Green council estate in Liverpool, Duggan, who is now 41, was bullied at home and at school – "I was probably just a bit too sensitive and effeminate for my own good" – and he found solace in the Smiths, particularly in their first couple of albums, when he was 14 or 15.
(3) Were Brian Blessed to complain angrily and defensively enough that he "didn't come across as effeminate", he would gradually start to seem girly.
(4) One result of the sharp dichotomization of male and female gender roles is the widely held belief that effeminate males generally prefer to play the female role rather than the male.
(5) When the talkies first came in, leading men with effeminate voices lost their careers.
(6) In addition, we have found significantly increased plasma follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) and LH levels associated with decreased plasma free testosterone levels in homosexual men, but only in effeminate homosexuals.
(7) The majority mixed with effeminate boys, admired a senior person in school and about a third had a physical relationship with this person.
(8) Effeminacy and homosexuality are also linked by the belief that as a result of this role preference effeminate males are sexually interested only in masculine males with whom they play the passive sex role.
(9) And boys don't want to hang around you coz you're effeminate."
(10) Fellow members of the Lower Third could not help noticing David’s flamboyant, even effeminate performing style.
(11) It must have been the worst fight ever: two effeminate theatrical blobs trying not to get hurt.
(12) Eddy Bellegueule (Louis’s real name, which means “beautiful face” in French) is an effeminate child; as a “faggot”, “queer”, “poof”, as he is regularly reminded, he is even worse than an “Arab”, “Jew” or “black”.
(13) Speaking earlier at the conference, Gambaccini said Moyles "encouraged bullying" and caused "human suffering" after a show in which he changed the lyrics to two Will Young songs and sang them in an effeminate, high-pitched voice.
(14) There were eunuchs (castrated men) and mukhannathun (effeminate men) to whom the rules of gender segregation did not apply: they were allowed access to the women’s quarters, presumably because there was thought to be no likelihood of sexual misbehaviour.
(15) From Kenneth Williams to Tom Allen, there has always been a market for effeminate stylings allied to a waspish, holier-than-thou gentility.
(16) In all fairness, no one can speak of transsexual or transvestite children as has been done in the past, but only of feminine or effeminate boys and tomboy girls.
(17) In the course of a long-term study of 55 boys with early effeminate (cross-gender) behavior an effort was also made to ascertain the presence of sexual deviance in their parents, siblings, uncles, and aunts.
(18) A relatively advanced age and secondary trans-sexualism (transvestites and effeminate homosexuals) are risk factors for poor prognosis in those requesting sex reassignment.
(19) It’s a film which playfully toyed with the perceived homoeroticism of the male-warrior culture: depicting the Spartans as brave, warlike and noble, but the Persians as in thrall to an effeminate and contemptible king: Xerxes.
(20) Hence that word "squeaky", suggestive of the most paltry and effeminate of colonic disorders, a million miles from Sir Alex, with his cast-iron constitution, his five portions of fruit a day, his regular and decisive daily movements.