namby-pamby
Americanadjective
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without firm methods or policy; weak or indecisive.
namby-pamby handling of juvenile offenders.
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lacking in character, directness, or moral or emotional strength.
namby-pamby writing.
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weakly sentimental, pretentious, or affected; insipid.
noun
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a namby-pamby person.
written by and for namby-pambies.
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namby-pamby sentiment.
the harmless namby-pamby of a birthday card.
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namby-pamby verse or prose.
adjective
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sentimental or prim in a weak insipid way
namby-pamby manners
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clinging, feeble, or spineless
a namby-pamby child
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Etymology
Origin of namby-pamby
First recorded in 1726; rhyming compound based on the first syllable of Ambrose Philips; first used as a nickname for Philips in the title of a poem by Henry Carey (1687?–1743) ridiculing his verse
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The tackle was brilliant and set the tone for a proper game of football and not this namby-pamby interpretation of what modernists think the game should be.
From BBC • May 8, 2022
Appeals for unity sometimes come off as namby-pamby.
From Washington Times • Nov. 7, 2018
“He had no idea how deeply I would resent being made to utter namby-pamby Plante-speak like a dummy on his knee,” she wrote in The Guardian.
From New York Times • Sep. 26, 2017
To them, pitch-limits for starters was a namby-pamby notion.
From Washington Post • Nov. 5, 2015
You don’t do infrared reconnaissance and maintain a civilian arsenal in some namby-pamby tree house.
From "Dry" by Neal Shusterman and Jarrod Shusterman
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
