niminy-piminy

comparative more niminy-piminy · superlative most niminy-piminy · alternative nimini-pimini · alternative miminy-piminy · alternative niminy-priminy

1. Overtly or excessively prim.

   We should be less niminy-piminy and say what we think.

   2009, Michela Wrong, It’s Our Turn to Eat: The Story of a Kenyan Whistle Blower

   5 more examples

   "I detest rude, unlady-like girls." "I hate affected, niminy piminy chits."

   1868, Louisa May Alcott, Little Women

   Inside were many fine pictures, not in the niminy-piminy manner, but strong, full-coloured, and just.

   1902, Hilaire Belloc, The Path To Rome

   You pinheaded, pretentious, pompous, egotistical, niminy-piminy-

   1919, Arthur Train, By Advice of Counsel

   We began challenging each other to drink a whole tumblerful of wine at a single draught and at high speed. The girls hang back from the ordeal, and returned the glass after spluttering, niminy-piminy sips;

   2013, Patrick Leigh Fermor, The Broken Road

   That is what my eating abroad had been: fearful, niminy-piminy slivers of prosciutto and single olives.

   2018, Laura Freeman, The Reading Cure: How Books Restored My Appetite

alternative nimini-pimini · alternative miminy-piminy · alternative niminy-priminy

1. uncountableexcessive primness; affected delicacy; mincingness
2. uncountableone who acts in an excessively prim manner

   "I was," she said, "but I didn’t stay." Her nose was shiny and her hair was bedraggled. "If I had been penned in with that niminy-piminy any longer I'd have broken down the door to get out."

   1976, Isaac Asimov, Murder at the ABA