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womanish

adjective

No English definition recorded for this entry.

L342559 on Wikidata ↗

Wiktionary

Pronunciation: /ˈwʊmənɪʃ/

adj

Etymology: From Middle English wommanyssh. Equivalent to woman + -ish. The verb is from the adjective.

  1. Characteristic of a woman; effeminate, feminine.

    […] Romans novv / Haue Thevves, and Limbes, like to their Anceſtors; / But vvoe the vvhile, our Fathers mindes are dead, / And vve are gouern'd vvith our Mothers ſpirits, / Our yoake, and ſufferance, ſhevv vs VVomaniſh.

    The Fence was a proper Park paling in excellent condition; with clusters of fine Elms, or rows of old Thorns following its line almost every where.—Almost must be stipulated—for there were vacant spaces & through one of these, Charlotte as soon as they entered the Enclosure, caught a glimpse over the pales of something White & Womanish in the field on the other side;—it was a something which immediately brought Miss B. into her head—& stepping to the pales, she saw indeed—& very decidedly, in spite of the Mist; Miss B—seated, not far before her, at the foot of the bank which sloped down from the outside of the Paling & which a narrow Path seemed to skirt along;—Miss Brereton seated, apparently very composedly—& Sir E. D. by her side.

  2. Carried out by or pertaining to a woman.

    And gan recomfort her in her rude vvyſe, / VVith vvomaniſh compaſſion of her plaint, / VViping the teares from her ſuffuſed eyes, […]

verb

Etymology: From Middle English wommanyssh. Equivalent to woman + -ish. The verb is from the adjective.

  1. To make womanish.

    Then the Lord Gaspar: “I believe music,” quoth he, “together with many other vanities, is meet for women, and peradventure for some also that have the likeness of men, but not for them that be men indeed, who ought not with such delicacies to womanish their minds and bring themselves in that sort to dread death.”

    [T]his effeminate love of a Woman, dothe ſo womaniſh a man, that, yf yow yeelde to yt, yt will not onely make yow a famous Amazon but a Launder, a Diſtaff ſpinner, or whatſoever other vyle occupacyon theyre Idle heades can Imagyn, and theyre weyke handes ꝑforme [performe]: […]