limp-wristed

American  

[limp-ris-tid] / ˈlɪmpˌrɪs tɪd /

adjective

1. Slang: Disparaging and Offensive. (especially of a gay man) effeminate.

2. soft; flabby; ineffectual.

---

limp-wristed British  

adjective

1. ineffectual; effete

---

Etymology

Origin of limp-wristed

First recorded in 1955–60; limp ² + wrist + -ed ³

Example Sentences

Another shows Bolles in a T-shirt with a picture of a limp-wristed Che Guevara above the words “Socialism Is For F-gs”.

From The Guardian

“There was even this period ‘the pansy craze’ where it was fashionable to have limp-wristed men in movies who may have been gay or trans or entirely outside that in movies.”

From The Guardian

After their limp-wristed tongue lashing to three do-nothing/know-nothing recruits who only brought shame and disrespect to their university and nation, they fire a coach who had four of six winning seasons, who has dealt with devastating injuries to key players and the loss of his starting quarterback, who recruits so well that the bulk of these players leave early for the NFL, and has boosters and donors throwing millions of dollars to a football program at a basketball school.

From Los Angeles Times

“They have this idea of what gay people do. They think gay people are all one way. They just don’t realize gay people have all sorts of preferences and jobs and things, just like they do. They think if you’re not limp-wristed or lisping, well, then, you’re not gay.”

From Washington Post

“Specifically, are the thirty-one United Nations now fighting together agreed that our common job of liberation includes giving to all peoples freedom to govern themselves as soon as they are able, and the economic freedom on which all lasting self-government inevitably rests? A few pages later, this: Nobody reads “One World” anymore, and Willkie resides in history as a limp-wristed political wanderer wanting in all toughness.

From Salon