namby-pamby
/nambɪˈpambi
/derogatory
adjective
Lacking energy, strength, or courage; weak or ineffectual: namby-pamby liberals...
- In fact he would probably think we were a bunch of namby-pamby liberals for feeding them at all.
- None of this namby-pamby nonsense about love, happiness or respect from our Dear Leader.
- The fact that those women are surrounded by a whole bunch of weak, namby-pamby men just makes it worse.
noun (plural namby-pambies)
A weak or ineffectual person: he was a good boy, a namby-pamby, who kept the place assigned to him...
- The first group (the namby-pambies) contrive to let their little darlings come out on top.
- I wonder what sort of a bunch of namby-pambies there are in this town.
- I think as a prosecutor everyone thought I was a namby-pamby, and therefore much more defense-oriented and minded.
Origin
Mid 18th century: fanciful formation based on the given name of Ambrose Philips (died 1749), an English writer whose pastorals were ridiculed by Pope and others.
This began as a play on the name of the English writer Ambrose Philips, who died in 1749. His poems were ridiculed as insipid and over-sentimental by writers including the poet and essayist Alexander Pope.