Meanings
- uncountableThe condition of being mannish; manliness or masculinity.
I hate women in stiff collars and shirts and ties and mannishness like that […]
1922, A. S. M. Hutchinson, This Freedom, Part Two, Chapter 22 more examples
1903, Mabel Atkinson, Review of Lily Braun, Die Frauenfrage: ihre geschichtliche Entwicklung und wirtschaftliche Seite in American Journal of Sociology, 1 March, 1903, p. 703, She thinks also that when once the first ardor of revolution, with its inevitable tendency to mannishness, has passed by, women who work need lose none of their proper grace and charm—a view which is certainly borne out by facts.
There was a certain thickness to her movement and appearance, a rough mannishness, despite the large breasts which she tried to flatten beneath a harness-like bra, stolen from an older sister's dresser.
1999, Debra Spark, “Chocolate Mice”, in New England Review, volume 20, number 4, page 123 - CaribbeanuncountableImpertinence; precociousness.
Chinta came straight up to him and said, with the mannishness she put on when Mrs Tulsi was away, ‘Brother-in-law, I want you to know that until you came to this house there were no crab-catchers here.’
1961, V. S. Naipaul, A House for Mr Biswas, Vintage International, published 2001, Part One, Chapter 5
Synonyms & antonyms
Origin
Cite this entry
mannishness. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/mannishness
“mannishness.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/mannishness. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “mannishness,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/mannishness.
Source: mannishness on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.