Word.ws English Dictionary

mamby-pamby

mamby-pamby is the alternative form of namby-pamby.

Meaning of namby-pamby

Adjective

namby-pamby (comparative more namby-pamby or namby-pambier, superlative most namby-pamby or namby-pambiest)

  1. Insipid and sentimental.
  2. Lacking vigor or decisiveness; spineless; wishy-washy.
    • […] she was still, as heretofore, a namby-pamby milk-and-water affected creature […]1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, “Which Treats of the Osborne Family”, in Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, →OCLC, page 383

See all 5 meanings of namby-pamby

Forms of mamby-pamby

comparativemore mamby-pamby
superlativemost mamby-pamby

Questions about mamby-pamby

What is mamby-pamby the alternative form of?
Mamby-pamby is the alternative form of namby-pamby.

Words near mamby-pamby in the dictionary

  1. Mambulo Nuevo
  2. Mambulo Viejo
  3. Mamburao
  4. Mambusao
  5. Mambwe
  6. mamby-pamby
  7. Mamdani
  8. mamdanification
  9. Mamdanism
  10. Mamdanist
  11. Mamdanistan

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: mamby-pamby (page history and authors); namby-pamby (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “mamby-pamby.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/mamby-pamby. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.