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pearl-clutching

adj

Etymology

From the image of a genteel woman clutching her pearl necklace in shock.

Definitions

  1. Prim, prudish, or easily offended.

    • When John Kerry “outed” Mary Cheney in a 2004 presidential debate, it was already well known that Mary Cheney was a lesbian. You can't out the already out, no matter what pearl-clutching pundits would have you believe.
    • Even the biggest doe-eyed, pearl-clutching Etsy muffin has to find some way to make it okay to be negative, because we have no choice.
    • There's something truly irresistible about the pearl-clutching cartoons that came out during the time people thought women on bicycles were single-handedly going to bring society to ruin.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for pearl-clutching. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA