unmanly
Americanadjective
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not manly; not characteristic of or befitting a man; weak, timid, or cowardly.
adjective
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not masculine or virile
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ignoble, cowardly, or dishonourable
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of unmanly
Middle English word dating back to 1350–1400; see origin at un- 1, manly
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.
Young Alison and her dandyish father were inversions of each other: “While I was trying to compensate for something unmanly in him,” she writes, “he was attempting to express something feminine through me.”
From Slate ● Nov. 18, 2019
While soccer is the global game, the CPL is describing their brand as “distinctly Canadian”, an attacking hard-nosed style where the feigning of phantom injuries is seen as unmanly.
From Reuters ● Oct. 31, 2019
There’s something so utterly unpresidential about tweeting matters of import — and, frankly, so unmanly — one wonders why Mattis remained as long as he did.
From Washington Post ● Dec. 21, 2018
He worried that if Vietnam fell to communism, then he would get labeled “a coward. An unmanly man. A man without a spine.”
From Salon ● Nov. 2, 2018
And it seemed to me that there was something unmanly about my attachment to literature.
From "Hunger of Memory" by Richard Rodriguez
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.
