Search the Dictionary

Of, pertaining to, befitting, or resembling, a child. "Childish innocence." Macaulay.

In the manner of a child; in a trifling way; in a weak or foolish manner.

The state or quality of being childish; simplicity; harmlessness; weakness of intellect.

To utter in an indistinct or incoherent way; to repeat,as words, in a childish way without understanding. These [words] he used to babble in all companies. Arbuthnot.

Like a babe; a childish; babyish. [R.] "Babish imbecility." Drayton. -- Bab"ish*ly, adv. -- Bab"ish*ness, n. [R.]

Like a baby; childish; puerile; simple. -- Ba"by*ish*ly, adv. -- Ba"by*ish*ness, n.

To weep noisily, or so as to disfigure the face; to cry in a childish manner. She wept, she blubbered, and she tore her hair. Swift.

Resembling a boy in a manners or opinions; belonging to a boy; childish; trifling; puerile. A boyish, odd conceit. Baillie.

The nature of a boy; childishness. Dryden.

child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things. 1. Cor. xii. 11.

To utter harmoniously; to recite rhythmically. Chime his childish verse. Byron.

Childish; like a babe. [Obs.]

To soothe by singing softly. The fragment of the childish hymn with which he sung and crooned himself asleep. Dickens.

Defiance; challenge. Childish, unworthy dares Are not enought to part our powers. Chapman. Sextus Pompeius Hath given the dare to Cæsar. Shak.

Feebleness or imbecility of understanding or mind, particularly in old age; the childishness of old age; senility; as, a venerable man, now in his dotage. Capable of distinguishing between the infancy and the dotage of Greek literature. Macaulay.

To handle much; to play childishly; to turn over and over. I saw him fumble with the sheets, and play with flowers. Shak.

es of the breath or voice; to laugh in a light, affected, or silly manner; to titter with childish levity. Giggling and laughing with all their might At the piteous hap of the fairy wight. J. R. Drake.

A childish play, in which one covers his eyes, and guesses who strikes him or his hand placed behind him.

f or pertaining to infancy, or to an infant; similar to, or characteristic of, an infant; childish; as, infantile behavior.

Infantile; childish. A degree of credulity next infantine. Burke.