wimp
[wimp]Informal.
- a weak, ineffectual, timid person.
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- wimp out,
- to be or act like a wimp.
- to show timidity or cowardice; chicken out.
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Origin of wimp
WIMP
[wimp]
- any of a group of weakly interacting elementary particles predicted by various unified field theories, as the W particle and Z-zero particle, that are characterized by relatively large masses.
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Origin of WIMP
1985–90; W(eakly) I(nteracting) M(assive) P(article)
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for wimp
Contemporary Examples
Was he so determined not to look like an angry black man that he ended up looking ... kind of like a wimp?
All of us here at NewsBeast knew the word “wimp” would carry a charge and get people to pay attention.
Just by definition, you'd think, any American who plunges into what Teddy Roosevelt called "the arena," is no wimp.
On the cover of Newsweek, my colleague Michael Tomasky calls Mitt Romney a wimp.
The chapter titles say a lot: “Even More of a Wimp than Jimmy Carter,” “Not a Great Listener.”
Historical Examples
Mr. Wimp has found no possible clue to such conduct in his papers.
The Big Bow MysteryI. Zangwill
Grodman saw it and watched her, and fooled Wimp to the top of his bent.
The Big Bow MysteryI. Zangwill
And yet, had not Mrs. Wimp let out as much at the Christmas dinner?
The Big Bow MysteryI. Zangwill
Another of Wimp's grandmother-in-law's delusions was that Wimp had married to get her into the family.
The Big Bow MysteryI. Zangwill
Wimp did what work he could do at home in a secluded study at the top of the house.
The Big Bow MysteryI. Zangwill
wimp
- informal a feeble ineffective personSee also wimp out
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Word Origin
C20: of unknown origin
WIMP
- windows, icons, menus (or mice), pointers: denoting a type of user-friendly screen display used on small computersa WIMP system
- physics weakly interacting massive particle
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Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for wimp
n.
1920 (but not attested again until 1960), perhaps a clipped form of whimper (cf whimp, 1540s), perhaps influenced by J. Wellington Wimpy, comparatively unaggressive character in "Popeye" comics.
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v.
1986, with out (adv.), from wimp (n.). Related: Wimped; wimping.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
WIMP
[wĭmp]
- Short for weakly interacting massive particle. Any of various hypothetical particles, some predicted by certain theories such as supersymmetry, which interact with other particles by the force of gravity alone. WIMPs are considered by some scientists to be candidates for the dark matter that makes up much of the mass of the universe.
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The American Heritage® Science Dictionary
Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.