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• Mae West
  Mae West

  noun

  an inflatable yellow or orange life jacket for emergency use, especially by sailors or by airplane pilots in flights over water.
• mae west
  mae west

  noun

  an inflatable life jacket, esp as issued to the US armed forces for emergency use
• West, Mae
  West, Mae

  A twentieth-century American actress. Mae West was a blonde, busty sex symbol, whose seductiveness was usually very funny because she overstated it so greatly. The popular version of her most celebrated line is, “Why don'cha come up and see me sometime?” She appeared memorably opposite W. C. Fields in My Little Chickadee.

Mae West

American  

noun

1. an inflatable yellow or orange life jacket for emergency use, especially by sailors or by airplane pilots in flights over water.

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mae west British  

/ meɪ /

noun

1. slang an inflatable life jacket, esp as issued to the US armed forces for emergency use

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West, Mae Cultural  

1. A twentieth-century American actress. Mae West was a blonde, busty sex symbol, whose seductiveness was usually very funny because she overstated it so greatly. The popular version of her most celebrated line is, “Why don'cha come up and see me sometime?” She appeared memorably opposite W. C. Fields in My Little Chickadee.

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Etymology

Origin of Mae West

1935–40; after Mae West, full-bosomed U.S. comic actress

Example Sentences

‘Too much of a good thing can be wonderful,” Mae West said.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 13, 2026

Here is a soft, peach-hued sofa conceived by the wunderkind Salvador Dalí and executed by the designer Jean-Michel Frank that mimics the lips of the saucy actress Mae West.

From New York Times • May 9, 2024

He chooses not to return and struggles to find a work in showbusiness, eventually launching his film career in a Mae West vehicle, “She Done Him Wrong.”

From Salon • Dec. 14, 2023

Mae West, Richard Nixon and Liberace were in the audience on opening night.

From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 25, 2023

Snowden was lying on his back on the floor with his legs stretched out, still burdened cumbersomely by his flak suit, his flak helmet, his parachute harness and his Mae West.

From "Catch-22" by Joseph Heller

Related Words

• life preserver
• life vest