puellile

comparative more puellile · superlative most puellile

1. derogatoryformalCharacteristic of, or pertaining to, a girl or girls.

   Of pass-times puellile.

   1908, Arnold Haultain, “The Origin of Games”, in The Mystery of Golf: A Briefe Account of Games in Generall: Their Origine; […], Boston, Mass.; New York, N.Y.: Houghton Mifflin Company, →OCLC, marginal note, page 12

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   One weak and puerile (or puellile; or anile) articles^([sic]) does a journal more harm than two good articles can neutralize.

   1858 May 16, Frederic Henry Hedge, MS letter to Henry W. Bellows; quoted in Ronald Vale Wells, Three Christian Transcendentalists: James Marsh, Caleb Sprague Henry, Frederic Henry Hedge (Columbia Studies in American Culture; no. 12), New York, N.Y.: Columbia University Press, 1943, →OCLC, page 97

   [The tale] would be too puellile—may we coin a word?—for strictures, had not the writer challenged them by her introduction.

   1891 April 29, Guardian, page 682, column 2; quoted in “Pue·llile, Pue·llular”, in James A. H. Murray, editor, A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles; […], volume VII (O, P), London: Clarendon Press, 1909, →OCLC, page 1568, column 2

   Andrew Carnegie has found “the prettiest girl in the world” in Pittsburgh. Never having sojourned in North Carolina, Uncle Andy has no conception of what puellile loveliness can be.

   1912 March 23, The Charlotte Daily Observer, Charlotte, N.C.: The Observer Company, →OCLC, page 4, column 5

   And little Audrey, too! What a rascal she is! Why, when she looked at her date for the prom, little Audrey just laughed and laughed … / All this, we admit, is rather puellile—(hooray, we’ve coined a word!) … And so we’ll become puerile at once—and give you the willies!

   1937 April 30, Charles Gellner, “Evergreen Reflections”, in William M. Mahoney, editor, The Greyhound, volume X, number 9, Baltimore, Md.: Students of Loyola College, →OCLC, page 2, column 3

   The dialogue with Ann-Margret on screen is puerile (or is it puellile?) and insulting to the audience.

   1965 April 26, Lorne Parton, “See hear: Machine-made star”, in The Province, number 25, Vancouver, B.C.: Southam Press for Pacific Press, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 10, column 2

   Synonyms: girlish, girllike, girly, puelline · Antonyms: ungirlish, ungirly