FEMININE • FREE-TRANSLATOR.COM • Definition of Feminine

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/fˈɛmənən/ Listen

adjective

Feminine adj.

1.

Of or pertaining to a woman, or to women; characteristic of a woman; womanish; womanly. "Her letters are remarkably deficient in feminine ease and grace."

2.

Having the qualities of a woman; becoming or appropriate to the female sex; as, in a good sense, modest, graceful, affectionate, confiding; or, in a bad sense, weak, nerveless, timid, pleasure-loving, effeminate. "Her heavenly form Angelic, but more soft and feminine." "Ninus being esteemed no man of war at all, but altogether feminine, and subject to ease and delicacy."

Feminine rhyme. (Pros.) See Female rhyme, under Female, a.

Synonyms: See Female, a.

noun

Feminine n.

1.

A woman. (Obs. or Colloq.) "They guide the feminines toward the palace."

2.

(Gram.) Any one of those words which are the appellations of females, or which have the terminations usually found in such words; as, actress, songstress, abbess, executrix. "There are but few true feminines in English."

See images of 'Feminine'

Etymology of 'Feminine'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Feminine" Quotes from Famous Books

... indicated by some mark of punctuation. A run-on line should be read closely with the following line with only a slight pause to indicate the line-unit. Monotony is prevented by the occasional use of a light or feminine ending—a syllable on which the voice does not ...

— Spenser's The Faerie Queene, Book I • Edmund Spenser

... who direct the pen, which is said to be mightier than the sword, is enough to kill any one with a real sense of humour. Some of the literary productions which were to send the greatest of living men off the face of the earth are quite grotesque in their feminine, shrill advocacy of force towards the "eater of pigs"; the "Anti-Christ"; and the murderer of a kindly-disposed gentleman who was on an innocent visit to the frontier of France for the purpose of negotiating a few private matters that had no political significance; what if he were one of ...

— Drake, Nelson and Napoleon • Walter Runciman

... near the door that to step out and step in again was the work of a second. In stepping in again he trod daintily, wriggling the back part of his person, better to simulate the feminine. In order that Letty should nowhere be caught unaware he put out his hand languidly, back upward, as princesses do when they expect it ...

— The Dust Flower • Basil King

... have strongly prepossessed you in his favour. I am not ignorant that I have to plead against him before his friends, in the presence of his mother—a mother respected even in a higher degree than her son is beloved; respected for her feminine virtues—for her more than feminine endowments; who, had she no other claim upon your hearts, must, by the unfortunate situation in which she ...

— Tales And Novels, Volume 1 • Maria Edgeworth

... day to enter the withdrawing room, while searching for Antonia, he found that he had lighted on a feminine discussion; he would have beaten a retreat, of course, but it seemed too obvious that he was merely looking for his fiancee, so, ...

— Forsyte Saga • John Galsworthy

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