NAMBY-PAMBY • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Namby-pamby

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/nˈæmbipˈæmbi/ Listen

Namby-pamby

noun

An insipid weakling who is foolishly sentimental.

adjective

Weak in willpower, courage or vitality. Synonyms: gutless, spineless, wishy-washy.

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Etymology of 'Namby-pamby'

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"Namby-pamby" Quotes from Famous Books

... unforgotten years in which she had wandered over the face of the earth with her father and Valentine Hawkehurst. The few elder girls remaining at the Lodge thought Miss Paget unsociable because she preferred a lonely corner in the gardens and some battered old book of namby-pamby stories to the delights of their society, and criticised her very severely as they walked listlessly to and fro upon the lawn with big garden-hats, and arms entwined ...

— Birds of Prey • M. E. Braddon

... man he'd heard or seen back-biting him and he'd make him come out fair and square and own up—or shut up. 'You pays your money and you takes your choice.' That's what a fellow would do. But girls prefer to be martyrs and go about 'letting concealment prey upon their damask cheeks' and all that namby-pamby nonsense. Pshaw! I wouldn't give a rush for a ...

— The Governess • Julie M. Lippmann

... Mrs. Tiralla had suddenly jumped up; what a namby-pamby the fellow was, to be sure, in spite of his eyes that were shining with mirth and his fresh lips under his small black moustache, and his four-and-twenty years. His way of speaking angered her. He spoke like an old ...

— Absolution • Clara Viebig

... this namby-pamby stuff," he had once been quoted as saying; "if you got enemies, don't tease 'em—show 'em who's running things. Blackjack 'em, if you ...

— The Penal Cluster • Ivar Jorgensen (AKA Randall Garrett)

... from her breast a handful of scarlet petals, casting them above her head. They fell about them both, a glowing shower. She went on: "How for a moment you could have imagined that you love the woman you call wife—a soft, silly, namby-pamby—" ...

— A Fool There Was • Porter Emerson Browne

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