womanish
/ˈwʊmənɪʃ/
womanish adjective: characteristic of a woman; effeminate, feminine.
Adjective
womanish (comparative more womanish, superlative most womanish)
- Characteristic of a woman; effeminate, feminine.
- […] Romans novv / Haue Thevves, and Limbes, like to their Anceſtors; / But vvoe the vvhile, our Fathers mindes are dead, / And vve are gouern'd vvith our Mothers ſpirits, / Our yoake, and ſufferance, ſhevv vs VVomaniſh.1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Iulius Cæsar”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
- The Fence was a proper Park paling in excellent condition; with clusters of fine Elms, or rows of old Thorns following its line almost every where.—Almost must be stipulated—for there were vacant spaces & through one of these, Charlotte as soon as they entered the Enclosure, caught a glimpse over...1817 (date written), Jane Austen, chapter 12, in R[aymond] W[ilson] Chambers, editor, Fragment of a Novel Written by Jane Austen, January–March 1817 […] [Sanditon], Oxford, Oxfordshire: Clarendon...
- Carried out by or pertaining to a woman.
- And gan recomfort her in her rude vvyſe, / VVith vvomaniſh compaſſion of her plaint, / VViping the teares from her ſuffuſed eyes, […]1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto VII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, page 496
Verb
womanish (third-person singular simple present womanishes, present participle womanishing, simple past and past participle womanished)
- To make womanish.
- Then the Lord Gaspar: “I believe music,” quoth he, “together with many other vanities, is meet for women, and peradventure for some also that have the likeness of men, but not for them that be men indeed, who ought not with such delicacies to womanish their minds and bring themselves in that sort...1907, “Book First”, in Rossiter Johnson, Dora Knowlton Ranous, editors, The Courtier (Il Cortegiano) (The Literature of Italy, 1265–1907), [New York, N.Y.]: The National Alumni, →OCLC, page 75
- [T]his effeminate love of a Woman, dothe ſo womaniſh a man, that, yf yow yeelde to yt, yt will not onely make yow a famous Amazon but a Launder, a Diſtaff ſpinner, or whatſoever other vyle occupacyon theyre Idle heades can Imagyn, and theyre weyke handes ꝑforme [performe]: […]Albert Feuillerat, editor (1926), “The First Book”, in The Countess of Pembroke’s Arcadia: Being the Original Version […] (Cambridge English Classics; The Complete Works of Sir Philip Sidney; IV)...
- Synonyms:
- effeminate, femalize, femininize, feminize, woman, womanize
womanish meaning in Hindi, Urdu and Malayalam
womanish in Hindi
- characteristic of a woman
- स्त्रैण straiṇ
womanish in Urdu
- زن صفت
womanish in Malayalam
- effeminate, girlish, girly
- സ്ത്രീസഹജമായ, സ്ത്രൈണഗുണങ്ങളുള്ള, സ്ത്രൈണ, ക്ലീബ, പൗരുഷമില്ലാത്ത, അപൗരുഷ
Examples of womanish in a sentence
- We have met before; but I owe her no grudge, and we must not wait for womanish fear.1831, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XIV, in Romance and Reality. […], volume III, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […]...
- Friends are a comfort in misfortune, but one should not make them unhappy by seeking their sympathy, as is done by women and womanish men.1946, Bertrand Russell, “Aristotle’s Ethics”, in History of Western Philosophy […], London: George Allen and Unwin, →OCLC, book 1 (Ancient...
- Perhaps he did too, for he turned scarlet and turned his face away to the wall, with a womanish gesture of shyness.1982, Lawrence Durrell, Constance, Faber & Faber 2004 (Avignon Quintet), p. 753
Synonyms of womanish
Forms of womanish
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | more womanish |
| superlative | most womanish |
| alternative form (obsolete) | womannish |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | womanishes |
| present participle | womanishing |
| past participle | womanished |
| past | womanished |
Origin of womanish
From Middle English wommanyssh. Equivalent to woman + -ish. The verb is from the adjective.
Questions about womanish
- What does womanish mean?
- Womanish means characteristic of a woman; effeminate, feminine.
- What is womanish in Hindi?
- Womanish in Hindi is स्त्रैण (straiṇ). See Womanish meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use womanish in a sentence?
- We have met before; but I owe her no grudge, and we must not wait for womanish fear.
- What part of speech is womanish?
- Womanish can be an adjective or a verb.
- How do you pronounce womanish?
- Womanish is pronounced /ˈwʊmənɪʃ/ (UK).
Words near womanish in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: womanish (page history and authors); womanish (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); womanish (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license). 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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-womanish.wav.
Cite this entry: “womanish.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/womanish. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.