Pamby
adj, noun ·2 syllables ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 Clipping of namby-pamby. abbreviation, alt-of, clipping
"“He’d scorn it. You heard what he said to-night,” answered Ben. “Never mind that. He’s got tony notions, but he isn’t a pamby, for all his talk.[…]”"
- 1 Clipping of namby-pamby. abbreviation, alt-of, clipping
"English, sterling genuine English, is a desideratum amongst you, and I am glad that I have got so much left; though Heaven knows how I retain it: I hear none but from my valet, and his is Nottinghamshire; and I see none but in your new publications, and theirs is no language at all, but jargon. Even your **** is terribly stilted and affected, with ‘very, very’ so soft and pamby."
Example
More examples"English, sterling genuine English, is a desideratum amongst you, and I am glad that I have got so much left; though Heaven knows how I retain it: I hear none but from my valet, and his is Nottinghamshire; and I see none but in your new publications, and theirs is no language at all, but jargon. Even your **** is terribly stilted and affected, with ‘very, very’ so soft and pamby."
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.