Word.ws English Dictionary

puelline

Syllables: pu·el·lineUK/p(j)uːˈɛliːn/US/p(j)uˈɛlˌin/

puelline adjective: synonym of puellile (“characteristic of, or pertaining to, a girl or girls”).

Adjective

puelline (comparative more puelline, superlative most puelline)

  1. Synonym of puellile (“characteristic of, or pertaining to, a girl or girls”).
    • The ‘young England’ poets, Dobell, Bulwer, Swinburne, Morris and Rosatti, seem to have effected an arrangement by which whatever any one of them writes the others shall criticise; and the quantity of hysterical admiration and puelline raising of hands and eyes and waving of applausive cambric that...1871 July, “Americanisms: A Study of Words and Manners”, in Albert Taylor Bledsoe, editor, The Southern Review, volume IX, number 19, St. Louis: Southwestern Book and Publishing Company, […]. London...
    • But a close study soon reveals in Dr. [Goldwin] Smith’s criticism the very defect of balance which he imputes more or less all round. His relation to the things he antagonises is at best a checking of the puerile by the puelline. As we go through his essays one by one, and note the method and the...1894 September 1, John M. Robertson, “The Saxon and the Celt”, in The Free Review: A Monthly Magazine, volume II, number 6, London: Swan Sonnenschein & Co., page 482
    Antonyms:
    ungirlish, ungirly

Examples of puelline in a sentence

  • His relation to the things he antagonises is at best a checking of the puerile by the puelline.1894 September 1, John M. Robertson, “The Saxon and the Celt”, in The Free Review: A Monthly Magazine, volume II, number 6, London: Swan...
  • On the female side the menses do not start, the breasts fail to grow, the external genitalia remain puelline, the uterus and cervix are infantile and the ovarian follicles do not ripen.1947, L. R. Broster, “Adrenal Glands”, in Ernest Rock Carling, J. Paterson Ross, editors, British Surgical Practice, volume 1, London...
  • My only comment (which Jane Nightwork is too puelline to comprehend) is don’t do your schism with nail scissors.1990, “Clinical Notes by a Resident Patient”, in Steven Rothman, editor, The Standard Doyle Company: Christopher Morley on Sherlock Holmes...

Synonyms of puelline

Antonyms

Forms of puelline

comparativemore puelline
superlativemost puelline

Origin of puelline

From Latin puella (“female child, girl”) + English -ine (suffix meaning ‘of or pertaining to’ forming adjectives). Puella is derived from puellus (“male child, young boy”) + -a (feminine form of -us); puellus is a contraction of puerulus (“little boy; little slave”), from puer (“boy, lad; male page, servant, or slave; child”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *peh₂w- (“few, little; smallness”)) + -ulus (“suffix forming diminutives of nouns indicating small size or youth”).

Questions about puelline

What does puelline mean?
Puelline means synonym of puellile (“characteristic of, or pertaining to, a girl or girls”).
How do you use puelline in a sentence?
His relation to the things he antagonises is at best a checking of the puerile by the puelline.
What part of speech is puelline?
Puelline is an adjective.
How do you pronounce puelline?
Puelline is pronounced /p(j)uːˈɛliːn/ (UK).

Words near puelline in the dictionary

  1. puella publica
  2. puellae aeternae
  3. puellae publicae
  4. puellas
  5. puellile
  6. puelline
  7. Puello
  8. Puellos
  9. Puente
  10. Puente Alto
  11. Puentes

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: puelline (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: “puelline.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/puelline. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.