effete

Etymology

Definitions

1. 1

   exhausted, spent, worn-out.

   • Nature is not effœte, as he saith, or so lavish, to bestow all her gifts upon an age, but hath reserved some for posterity, to shew her power, that she is still the same, and not old or consumed.
2. 2

   Lacking strength or vitality

   Lacking strength or vitality; feeble, powerless, impotent.

   • Amid the effete monarchies and princedoms of feudal Europe, morally and materially exhausted by the Thirty Years' War, the only hope of resistance to France lay in the little Republic of merchants, Holland.
   • A spirit of national masochism prevails, encouraged by an effete core of impudent snobs who characterize themselves as intellectuals (Spiro Agnew, October 1969)
3. 3

   Decadent, weak through self-indulgence.

   • In fact, one obvious project of the MLF […] is to counter the idea that lobster is unusually luxe or unhealthy, suitable only for effete palates or the occasional blow-the-diet treat.
4. ›+ 1 more definitionshow fewer

   1. 4

      Affected, overrefined.

      • The Port Washington players all wear matching socks and shorts and tucked-in shirts. They look sharp but effete, a mannequinish aspect to them.

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