Crossword clues for feminine
feminine
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Feminine \Fem"i*nine\, n.
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A woman. [Obs. or Colloq.]
They guide the feminines toward the palace.
--Hakluyt. -
(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.
--Latham.
Feminine \Fem"i*nine\, a. [L. femininus, fr. femina woman; prob. akin to L. fetus, or to Gr. qh^sqai to suck, qh^sai to suckle, Skr. dh[=a] to suck; cf. AS. f[=ae]mme woman, maid: cf. F. f['e]minin. See Fetus.]
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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.
--Macaulay. -
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.
--Milton.Ninus being esteemed no man of war at all, but altogether feminine, and subject to ease and delicacy.
--Sir W. Raleigh.Feminine rhyme. (Pros.) See Female rhyme, under Female, a.
Syn: See Female, a.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
mid-14c., "of the female sex," from Old French femenin (12c.) "feminine, female; with feminine qualities, effeminate," from Latin femininus "feminine" (in the grammatical sense at first), from femina "woman, female," literally "she who suckles," from root of felare "to suck, suckle" (see fecund). Usual modern sense of "woman-like, proper to or characteristic of women" is recorded from mid-15c. Related: Femininely.\n
\nThe interplay of meanings now represented roughly in female "characteristic of the sex that bears children," feminine "having qualities considered appropriate to a woman," and effeminate "having female qualities in a bad sense, unmanly," and the attempt to keep them clear of each other, has led to many coinages. Among nouns, in addition to feminity "womanishness," femininity, femaleness, feminineness (1810, "female qualities"), there is feminitude (1878); feminility "womanliness" (1824); feminie "womankind" (late 14c.); femality (17c., "effeminacy;" 1754 "female nature"); feminacy "female nature" (1829); feminicity "quality or condition of being a woman" (1843). Also feminality (1640s, "quality or state of being female"), from rare adjective feminal "female, belonging to a woman" (late 14c.), from Old French feminal. And femineity "quality or state of being feminine," also "effeminate; womanly," from Latin femineus "of a woman, pertaining to a woman."
Wiktionary
a. 1 Of or pertaining to the female gender; womanly. 2 Of or pertaining to the female sex; biologically female, not male. 3 Belonging to females; typically used by females. 4 Having the qualities stereotypically associated with women: nurturing, not aggressive. 5 (context grammar English) Of, pertaining or belonging to the female grammatical gender, in languages that have gender distinctions. n. 1 That which is feminine. 2 (context rare possibly obsolete English) A woman. 3 (context grammar English) The feminine gender. 4 (context grammar English) A word of the feminine gender.
WordNet
adj. associated with women and not with men; "feminine intuition" [ant: masculine]
befitting or characteristic of a woman especially a mature woman; "womanly virtues of gentleness and compassion" [syn: womanly] [ant: unwomanly]
(music or poetry) ending on an unaccented beat or syllable; "a feminine ending"
n. a gender that refers chiefly (but not exclusively) to females or to objects classified as female
Wikipedia
Feminine, or femininity, normally refers to qualities positively associated with women.
Feminine may also refer to:
- Feminine (grammar), a grammatical gender
- Feminine cadence, a final chord falling in a metrically weak position
- Feminine rhyme, a rhyme that matches two or more syllables at the end of lines with the final syllable unstressed
- Feminine Endings, a musicological feminist work published in 1991
Usage examples of "feminine".
He desired to shape her character to the feminine of his own, and betrayed the surprise of a slight disappointment at her advocacy of her ideas.
But is this secret knowledge, this mystical and alchemical awareness of the Feminine, also buried under the dust of centuries?
She still must follow citizen Anet as the feminine pronoun follows the masculine, or as a verb agrees with its nominative case in number and in person.
Madame Psychosis as bizarre that it was she, Madame Psychosis, whom the Auteur kept casting as various feminine instantiations of Death when he had the real thing right under his nose, and eminently photogenic to boot, the widow-to-be, apparently a real restaurant-silencer-type beauty even in her late forties.
Though, logically, my pilgrimage had ended with the unexpected discovery of Sylvia Joy, yet there were two famous feminine types of which, seeing that I was in Paris, I thought I might as well make brief studies, before I returned to London and finally resumed the bachelorhood from which I had started.
It was Brockle Buhn, the feminine gnome Crockett had already encountered.
Even the flaring coral pink and incarnadine satins of the capes glistened with the lubricious tones of intimate feminine flesh and served to underscore the essentially lascivious nature of the frenzy that descended upon the tiered ranks of spectators.
This demon would be able to enchant a serpent, thought, remembering that same smile when he was reflected in the cinematographic screens and he increased the temperature of all the feminine public.
One of the lengths to which they went was the establishment of patriarchal religion and the recasting of a father figure as the producer of the show, although from the very beginning, the cosmogonic principal had been feminine.
Although I was delighted at having obtained every favour I could possibly wish for in the uncomfortable position we had been in, I racked my brain to contrive the means of securing more complete enjoyment for the following night, but I found during the afternoon that the feminine cunning of my beautiful Greek was more fertile than mine.
When her aunt introduced me to her by name, she observed with true feminine tact that during her stay at Aix she had seen me five or six times at the fountain, but that I could not remember her features as she had always worn her veil.
The same Deity was often masculine and feminine: what was Dea Luna in one country, was Deus Lunus in another.
And he had known his Amir Khan well when he had told the Dewan that the fierce Pindari was gentle enough when it came to a matter of feminine beauty, for Bootea made an impression.
Her kind feminine fancy conjured up every possible extenuation of his dire offence.
While some transsexuals are born with feminine features, most need some cosmetic surgery to feminize the appearance.