Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A state of arrested development in an adult, characterized by retention of infantile mentality, accompanied by stunted growth and sexual immaturity, and often by dwarfism.
 - noun Marked immaturity, as in behavior or character.
 - noun An infantile act or remark.
 
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun Arrested or retrogressive development; the persistence or recurrence in the adult of those characteristics which are normal, but transient, in the child.
 
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun   An emotional 
dependency on being treated as aninfant . - noun   A sexual dependency on the sight or feeling of 
diapers , or beingdiapered . 
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun infantile behavior in mature persons
 - noun an abnormal condition in which an older child or adult retains infantile characteristics
 
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Japanese infantilism is so heavily sexualized it would make Americans ... well, hysterical.
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Japanese infantilism is so heavily sexualized it would make Americans ... well, hysterical.
SeeLight: 2007
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Poetic feeling does not derive simply from the expression of the emotions nevertheless unbridled egotism, a form of infantilism, is difficult to avoid in the early stages of writing.
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To top the charts at 93 is quite something, and especially for an uncompromising scholar who attributes rock'n'roll to "infantilism".
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If his gigantism is undeniable and unignorable, his badness is, inevitably, subject to debate: hardly his badness as a man, which, though softened by Donald's use of psychological terms like 'secondary narcissism,' is unmatched in its purity of self-absorption and ruthless egotism (one of the longest index entries under his name is 'infantilism'), but his badness as a writer.
Big Bad Wolfe? Spears, Monroe K. 1987
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They dismiss it as a bit of leftist deviation, or "infantilism".
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Writer defends Doctor Who from Stephen Fry's charges of 'infantilism'
Telegraph.co.uk: news, business, sport, the Daily Telegraph newspaper, Sunday Telegraph 2010
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Let's give the three possible reasons the generic name of "infantilism".
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Writer defends Doctor Who from Stephen Fry's charges of 'infantilism'
Telegraph.co.uk: news, business, sport, the Daily Telegraph newspaper, Sunday Telegraph 2010
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The term 'infantilism' has such a broad range that those who practice even a mild form of it, although keeping to themselves, seem to get a very negative reaction.
 
bilby commented on the word infantilism
"Does any of this explain the star's infantilism? Jackson did not have a sweet childlike nature, living in a perpetual Wendy world. Far from it. The evidence at his trial showed that he was a caricature of the cynical, calculated and predatory adult, soaked in booze and drugs, constantly conniving to manipulate children into a coercive environment where he could exploit them as he wished without bearing the consequences."
- Robert Kaplan, A talent for lies and abuse, theaustralian.com.au, 8 July 2009.
July 8, 2009
			
		
	
madmouth commented on the word infantilism
man, does that author not know about the rest of the Jackson family.
July 8, 2009