namby-pamby

(redirected from pamby)

namby-pamby

1. Overly sentimental, maudlin, or effeminate. Said almost exclusively of a man. You say you don't want some aggressive alpha male, but then you dismiss more sensitive, intellectual guys as being too namby-pamby—make up your mind! My father always looked down on the guys I dated in college as "namby-pamby boys" because they were usually pretty soft-spoken and didn't play any sports.
2. Weak, ineffectual, or spineless; lacking determination, vigor, and decisiveness. His election to office has lauded by his supporters as a rejection of the namby-pamby politics of his predecessor. We can't be namby-pamby about how to operate the business—if we're going to survive, we have to make tough choices right away.
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2024 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.

namby-pamby

(ˈnæmbiˈpæmbi)
mod. overly nice; effeminate and weak, when said of a male. Fred is too namby-pamby when it comes to making up his mind.
McGraw-Hill's Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions Copyright © 2006 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
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References in classic literature ?
By the book reviewers and the namby- pambys I am esteemed a sort of primitive beast that delights in the spilled blood of violence and horror.
Entertainer Julian Clary "It feels namby pamby to reduce the end of life to a forgotten answer on Mastermind."
They just don't like them living next door Entertainer Julian Clary It feels namby pamby to reduce the end of life to a forgotten answer on Mastermind Broadcaster Gyles Brandreth objects to the euphemism "pass" to announce someone's death
The festival will continue with significant participation of a Spanish band 'Radio Pesquera', and an Austrian band 'Namby Pamby Boy' scheduled to perform on November 5, followed by Swiss performers 'Simon Wyrsch Quartet' scheduled to perform on November 6, and finally, Polish performers 'Atom String Quartet' to conclude on November 7.
These people cannot help themselves and need lots of help, not the mamby pamby type, but good solid help to quit or it is not worth it as they will just go back again.
A FORMER soldier rammed another car on the A55 giving a family whiplash injuries, because they were driving in a "namby pamby" way.
On the way he reminisces about his time as a miner before getting out to become a singer - an ambition he was pilloried for as it was seen as "namby pamby" at the time, he says - catches up with childhood friends and even visits his old Ynysddu home.
Days of namby pamby approach to schooling need to be over.
Howson told Kirk magazine Life and Work: "I think the Church of Scotland is being a bit namby pamby.
But at least the worst ever performance on finals night evoked some emotion because mostly, the whole series washed over me like a namby pamby Nick Grimshaw wave.
I know much of its gentle humour comes from this, but I still want to shake the namby pamby parents - while the whole show needs dragging out of its mild, inoffensive, middle class and Middle England comfort zone.
I suppose now that we have had two great months of great sport from the Olympic Stadium we will have to watch the football on TV to see overpaid namby pamby football players fall over and claim they are badly injured.
What we really need to know is which party will toughen our increasingly namby pamby criminal justice system and make sure crooks who belong behind bars actually serve their sentences.
This increasingly erratic series swings from namby pamby teenage fluff to over the top violence in the blink of an eye.
The Government was accused yesterday of being "prissy" and "namby pamby" after it told health trusts to avoid using the word "obese" when telling parents their child is overweight.