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nmanly degree; womanish; weak. The king, by his voluptuous life and mean marriage, became effeminate, and less sensible of honor. Bacon. An effeminate and unmanly foppery. Bp. Hurd.

In an effeminate or womanish manner; weakly; softly; delicately. "Proud and effeminately gay." Fawkes.

The state of being effeminate; unmanly softness. Fuller.

, or luxury, and has not known the hardships of the field; a hero of the drawing room; an effeminate person. Shak. (b) One made a knight, for some other than military distinction or service. -- Carpet moth (Zoöl.), the larva of an insect which feeds on carpets and other woolen goods. There are several kinds. Some are…

Of or pertaining to the inhabitants of a city; characteristic of citizens; effeminate; luxurious. [Obs.] I am not well, But not so citizen a wanton as To seem to die ere sick. Shak.

An effeminate person; a spoilt child. "A young heir or cockney, that is his mother's darling." Nash (1592). This great lubber, the world, will prove a cockney. Shak.

To waste time in effeminate or voluptuous pleasures, or in idleness; to fool away time; to delay unnecessarily; to tarry; to trifle. We have trifled too long already; it is madness to dally any longer. Calamy. We have put off God, and dallied with his grace. Barrow.

Tender; not able to endure hardship; feeble; frail; effeminate; -- said of constitution, health, etc.; as, a delicate child; delicate health. A delicate and tender prince. Shak.

Addicted to pleasure; seeking enjoyment; luxurious; effeminate. [Obs.] Others, lastly, of a more delicious and airy spirit, retire themselves to the enjoyments of ease and luxury. Milton.

To make effeminate. [Obs.]

To deprive of masculine vigor or spirit; to weaken; to render effeminate; to vitiate by unmanly softness. Luxury had not emasculated their minds. V. Knox.

To soften; to render effeminate. Emolliated by four centuries of Roman domination, the Belgic colonies had forgotten their pristine valor. Pinkerton.

To deprive of nerve, force, strength, or courage; to render feeble or impotent; to make effeminate; to impair the moral powers of. A man . . . enervated by licentiousness. Macaulay. And rhyme began t' enervate poetry. Dryden.

l, affectionate, confiding; or, in a bad sense, weak, nerveless, timid, pleasure- loving, effeminate. Her heavenly form Angelic, but more soft and feminine. Milton. Ninus being esteemed no man of war at all, but altogether feminine, and subject to ease and delicacy. Sir W. Raleigh.

To make womanish or effeminate. Dr. H. More.

o incapacitate; to disable. So have they hamstrung the valor of the subject by seeking to effeminate us all at home. Milton.

Deficient in manhood; unmanly; effeminate. Lowell.

Delicate; tender; feeble; effeminate. Too ladylike a long fatigue to bear. Dryden.

Of or pertaining to Lydia, a country of Asia Minor, or to its inhabitants; hence, soft; effeminate; -- said especially of one of the ancient Greek modes or keys, the music in which was of a soft, pathetic, or voluptuous character. Softly sweet in Lydian measures, Soon he soothed his soul to pleasures. Dryden. Lydian st…

the qualities of a man; suitable to, or characteristic of, a man; virile; not feminine or effeminate; strong; robust. That lady, after her husband's death, held the reins with a masculine energy. Hallam.