Namby-pamby

adj, noun, verb

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Insipid and sentimental.
  2. 2
    Lacking vigor or decisiveness; spineless; wishy-washy.

    "[…] she was still, as heretofore, a namby-pamby milk-and-water affected creature […]"

Adjective
  1. 1
    lacking courage or vitality wordnet
Noun
  1. 1
    One who is insipid, sentimental, or weak.

    "Namby Pamby’s doubly Mild, Once a Man, and twice a Child; To his Hanging-Sleeves restor’d Now he foots it like a Lord; Now he Pumps his little Wits; Sh—ing Writes and Writing Sh—s,^([sic])"

  2. 2
    an insipid weakling who is foolishly sentimental wordnet
  3. 3
    Talk or writing which is weakly sentimental or affectedly pretty.

    "Another of Addison’s favourite companions was Ambrose Phillipps, a good Whig and a middling poet, who had the honour of bringing into fashion a species of composition which has been called, after his name, Namby-Pamby."

Verb
  1. 1
    To coddle.

    "While we business men of Britain have little time for this sort of namby-pambying towards the next generation, who are often feckless, tearful, small, dirty or all of the above, there is no doubt that youths have their place in commerce."

Etymology

Etymology 1

From the poem Namby-Pamby (1726) by Henry Carey, a satire on the sentimental pastorals of the poet Ambrose Phillips.

Etymology 2

From the poem Namby-Pamby (1726) by Henry Carey, a satire on the sentimental pastorals of the poet Ambrose Phillips.

Etymology 3

From the poem Namby-Pamby (1726) by Henry Carey, a satire on the sentimental pastorals of the poet Ambrose Phillips.

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