Crossword clues for effete
effete
- Letter's function exhausted
- Degenerate English leader of Fascist party
- Decadent English/French social function
- Decadent European female at social function
- Dancing feet left without skin and exhausted
- Lacking vitality
- Soft and weak
- Snob descriptor
- Like a snob
- Lacking in physical strength
- Spoiled by pampering
- Over-refined and ineffectual
- Lacking vitality or power
- Lacking in power
- Drained of vitality
- Degenerate, like Agnew's snobs
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Effete \Ef*fete"\, a. [L. effetus that has brought forth, exhausted; ex + fetus that has brought forth. See Fetus.] No longer capable of producing young, as an animal, or fruit, as the earth; hence, worn out with age; exhausted of energy; incapable of efficient action; no longer productive; barren; sterile.
Effete results from virile efforts.
--Mrs.
Browning
If they find the old governments effete, worn out, . .
. they may seek new ones.
--Burke.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
1620s, "functionless as a result of age or exhaustion," from Latin effetus (usually in fem. effeta) "exhausted, unproductive, worn out (with bearing offspring), past bearing," literally "that has given birth," from a lost verb, *efferi, from ex- "out" (see ex-) + fetus "childbearing, offspring" (see fetus). Figurative use is earliest in English; literal use is rare. Sense of "intellectually or morally exhausted" (1790) led to that of "decadent, effeminate" (by 1850s).
Wiktionary
a. 1 (label en obsolete) Of substances, quantities etc: exhausted, spent, worn-out. 2 (label en now rare) Of people: lacking strength or vitality; feeble, powerless, impotent. 3 decadent, weak through self-indulgence. 4 effeminate.
WordNet
adj. marked by excessive self-indulgence and moral decay; "a decadent life of excessive money and no sense of responsibility"; "a group of effete self-professed intellectuals" [syn: decadent]
Usage examples of "effete".
I suspected that she was deliberately trying to exhaust the effete Ozarine urbanite trailing behind her.
Thus did the first through the third utter coarse comments on the effete incapacity of Ozarine financiers to handle manly drink as compared to the stalwart sons of Pryggian soil.
However irritating he was, she would not allow this effete Terran to goad her into rash actions or speech.
If and when she did agree to reproduce - she shuddered at the thought - it would not be the offspring of an effete alien, but of a mate carefully chosen for his strength, intelligence and useful political connections.
For all his effete behaviour, that man was dangerous, as dangerous as a limpet grenade, which clung to the skin, set to explode at any minute.
They were not to think that they were subverting her to their effete ways, just because .
It was vibrant with power and certainty, as unlike the effete tones he normally adopted as her own voice had been when it broke on the sobs.
I pretend to conceal MY purpose here, which is on the invitation of certain distressed patriots of Todos Santos, to assist them in their deliverance from the effete tyranny of the Church and its Government.
I regret to say that my experience with the effete Latin races of this continent has not inspired me with confidence in their loyalty to trust.
Our race is descended in direct line from the demigods, the Mehruhkuhnz, untainted by the blood of effete Ehleenee.
The process, when effected for the removal of effete matter, is, in a measure, chemical, and accordingly the change is greater.
They facilitate the action of the secretory glands, tone them up, and give a new impulse to their operations, so that they can more expeditiously rid the system of worn-out and effete materials.
He undergoes a thorough shampooing, and, although the person may be scrupulously clean, he will be astonished at the amount of effete matter removed by this process.
The circulation is loaded with effete and useless matter, the vessels being thereby weakened and distended, and the circulation retarded.
THE CAUSES of stomatitis, in nursing infants, are unhealthy milk, or effete matter, which, for lack of proper care and cleanliness, accumulates upon the nipple.