Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A person regarded as weak-willed or timid.
Wiktionary
- n. One who is fearful and timid, especially in making decisions and plans, in discussions, debates, arguments, and confrontations, and in taking responsibility.
- n. A loser.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A person who is ineffectual, timid, and often luckless; a person of no significance.
WordNet 3.0
- n. (Yiddish) a timid unfortunate simpleton
Etymologies
- Yiddish nebekh, poor, unfortunate, of Slavic origin; see bhag- in Indo-European roots.
Examples
“The character was described as the nebbish, not so great with the women, really kind of insecure, starting over.”
TV Addict Interview: UNHITCHED Star Shaun Majumder | the TV addict
“The name-checking of Woody Allen on the cover of the first issue recalls the nebbish director's maxim that he would never want to join any club that would have him for a member.”
“(And the nebbish is the one who has to clean it up.)”
“Cusack is a very different kind of nebbish, and he avoids the pitfalls of too many actors who think that being in a Woody Allen movie means you have to fully inhabit the Woody persona.”
“I love the word 'nebbish' and celebrate every time it is used.”
Will pro-choice activists give any moral weight to the unborn?
“So like some kind of nebbish-y Nero he decrees, "All this pastrami is going straight to my thighs ...”
“The physically awkward but intellectually gifted nebbish was foregrounded in film and television by Woody Allen, Dustin Hoffman, and Richard Dreyfuss, and later by Jerry Seinfeld, Adam Sandler, Ben Stiller, and Larry David.”
“Among the other numerous (at least one per page) lovable wisenheimer remarks is this definition: A nebbish doesn't know he's a nebbish ...”
The Huffington Post: David Finkle: Easy Reader: Howard Jacobson's Novel Takes the Prize
“In flying other airlines as a nebbish I found the their treatment of me was not really different than I had as an American card-holder.”
Pseudo-currency, Arnold Kling | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty
“First is a brutally bullied nebbish who seeks revenge on the classmates who abused and humiliated him.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘nebbish’.
-
Yiddishkeit
There are a few short lists of Yiddish words, but none appropriate to the glory of the language, and none that are open. Thought I'd start one, and would love contributions. I'm tagging as I go, an...
schmuck, nosh, chutzpah, shtick, kvetch, oy vey, oy gevalt, shvitz, shtik, shiksa, putz, mensch and 94 more...
-
There's a word for it
catkin, pastiche, badonkadonk, biome, omphaloscopy, pogonophobia, reptation, anathema, xyst, commodify, commoditize, monetize and 46 more...
-
Fancy Foreign Words
de facto, Zeitgeist, schadenfreude, apropos, per se, Auteur, tookus, de rigueur, xyst, arrivederci, sotto, troika and 5 more...
-
JimboBaggins's list
paraphenalia
haberdashery, desideratum, esoteric, retribution, retrograde, tetrahedron, iridescent, tentative, siphon, soothsayer, wanderlust, patina and 16 more...
-
Lisa's Words
Things that I want to learn to widen my vocabulary.
thewless, mooncalf, pithy, nebbish, chuffiness, noddy, blooter, mordant, quidnunc
-
Jayni's Favorites
Too early to tell
schnook, pish, tetchy, megillah, nebbish, plotz, slattern, trollop
-
Yiddish
tsuris, verklempt, haimish, bupkis, naches, nudnik, nebbish, bubbe meise
Comments
No comments yet...
Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.