fair sex

American  

Or fairer sex

noun

Older Use: Sometimes Offensive.

1. women as a group (usually used facetiously).

   an insult to the fair sex.

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fair sex British  

noun

1. women collectively

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fair sex Idioms  

1. Girls or women, as in Many women would object to being called the fair sex nowadays. This euphemism uses fair in the sense of “physically beautiful” and is probably dying out. [Mid-1600s]

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Sensitive Note

This is a dated term, usually used for humorous effect. It uses the word fair in the sense of “physically attractive”; because it refers to a woman in terms of her appearance, it is sometimes perceived as demeaning.

Etymology

Origin of fair sex

First recorded in 1680–90

Example Sentences

The book American and Other Drinks touts the ladies’ blush as a "favourite drink among the fair sex," neglecting to cite its popularity with aspiring hyperglycemics.

From Slate • Jan. 21, 2013

“You are in a city, my dear lady, where insults to the fair sex never go unpunished.”

From Frank Merriwell's New Comedian The Rise of a Star by Standish, Burt L.

Whatever Frenchman would care to go to a land where he needs must be sufficiently indifferent to the fair sex to smear himself with butter!

From West African studies by Kingsley, Mary Henrietta

And Se�or Vicente did wisely; however much of a lion one may be, one must be gallant toward the fair sex.

From The Last Lion and Other Tales by Blasco Ib??ez, Vicente

Much of the civilization of Europe is due to the high position of the fair sex in the social scale.

From The Hindoos as they Are A Description of the Manners, Customs and the Inner Life of Hindoo Society in Bengal by Bose, Shib Chunder