namby

comparative more namby · superlative most namby · alternative pamby

1. abbreviationclippingClipping of namby-pamby.

   Big mistake: I make many medium-sized mistakes but am far too namby and cautious to make a really big one.

   2006, MediaGuardian, Rick Peters, quoting Phil Hilton, Who’s Who in the Media: An Essential Guide to the Most Powerful Movers and Shakers in the Media, [London]: Guardian Books, →ISBN, page 85, column 2

   2 more examples

   Mother thinks he’d just sit about and cry because he hadn’t got his favourite cigarettes. People imagine he’s namby and soft. That’s just where they’re so utterly wrong. If he gets an idea into his head he’ll force himself to go through with it, by sheer will-power, until he breaks down.

   1928, Christopher Isherwood, chapter XIV, in All the Conspirators: A Novel, London: Jonathan Cape […], →OCLC, pages 197–198

   “I don’t like her,” said someone with an original point of view, “I think she’s namby.” […] “Aren’t there any girls’ school stories in the library?” “Yes, there are, but no one likes them, they’re too namby.[…]”

   1931 October, Christine Longford, Making Conversation, London: Leonard Stein, Publisher with Victor Gollancz Ltd […], published November 1931 (2nd impression), →OCLC, pages 38 (chapter II) and 49 (chapter III)

plural nambies · alternative pamby

1. abbreviationclippingClipping of namby-pamby.

   “You guys are a pack of nambies.” (Raucous protests from the team.)

   1999, Jonathan Strong, The Haunts of His Youth, page 169

   1 more example

   And, also, they could stuff their real tennis and pall-mall as I abhorred them both! They were games for 'nambies', as I called the children who attended schools like Compton Wynyates.

   2020, John Isaacs, My Football Diary - by William Shakespeare