namby-pamby

Definitions

1. One who is insipid, sentimental, or weak.
2. Talk or writing which is weakly sentimental or affectedly pretty.

Equivalents

Examples

“Namby Pamby’s doubly Mild, Once a Man, and twice a Child; To his Hanging-Sleeves restor’d Now he foots it like⟳ a Lord; Now he Pumps his little Wits; Sh—ing Writes and Writing Sh—s,^([sic])”

“Another of Addison’s favourite companions was Ambrose Phillipps, a good Whig and a middling poet, who had the honour of bringing into fashion a species of composition which has been called, after his name⟳, Namby-Pamby.”

CEFR level