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

In the last one, Rourke’s character often sounded “like a cross between Mae West and Bob Dylan,” according to The Times’ review.

From Los Angeles Times

Over the past century, Pacific Dining Car was popular with celebrities such as Mae West and the gossip columnist Louella Parsons, while also serving as a backdrop in films, according to the restaurant’s website.

From Los Angeles Times

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

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

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

From Los Angeles Times

Related Words

• life preserver
• life vest