womanish

American  

[woom-uh-nish] / ˈwʊm ə nɪʃ /

adjective

1. womanlike or feminine.

2. weakly feminine; effeminate.

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womanish British  

/ ˈwʊmənɪʃ /

adjective

1. having qualities or characteristics regarded as unsuitable to a strong character of either sex, esp a man

2. characteristic of or suitable for a woman

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Related Words

See womanly.

Other Word Forms

• unwomanish adjective
• womanishly adverb
• womanishness noun

Etymology

Origin of womanish

First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English; woman, -ish ¹

Example Sentences

With a womanish gesture he lifted a lock of silver hair from his forehead and smoothed it back on his head.

From Literature

“Do you know of anyone connected with the Armstrong case who answers to that description—small, dark, womanish voice?”

From Literature

He was a northerner, with black curls that verged on womanish, an effect he tempered with his carefully tended beard.

From Literature

Too long America has been weak and womanish and tried to settle things with words.

From Washington Post

It is Anna whose florid, overheated jealousy, fed on fantasies of Vronsky’s infidelity, dooms her to the womanish “lesser states” that Kitamura’s narrator so dreads.

From The New Yorker