Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A child's undergarment consisting of a shirt and pants buttoned together at the waist.
- n. Slang A boy or man who is considered weak or effeminate.
Wiktionary
- adj. Weak, timid, effeminate, ineffectual.
- n. A children's undergarment composed, in part, of panties attached to a waistband.
- n. An ineffectual, weak, or timid person, especially a boy or young man; a sissy.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A timid man or boy considered childish or unassertive.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a timid man or boy considered childish or unassertive
Examples
“But this query is precisely the kind of pantywaist handwringing that rightly goes down in the flood of the he-man Homeland Security strutting that always follows these incidents.”
“Right-wing talk show hosts brayed that he was exhibiting a "pantywaist" response to the "crisis.”
Robert Creamer: The First 100 Days -- How Obama Scores on the Nine Qualities of Leadership
“Rosica really means by the phrase “civility, charity, mercy and politeness” is a kind of pantywaist political correctness, void of testicular fortitude, that is so afraid to identify and call out blatant evil in the public square.”
“Tonight we learned that Sarah Palin doesn't have time for that kind of pantywaist liberal chit chat.”
“The Europeans are calling him a 'surrender monkey' and a 'pantywaist'.”
“Obama has a superiority complex AND he's a "pantywaist" for going on "apology tours" and bowing to show respect to Saudi leaders.”
“All you pantywaist social nerds can kiss my grits!”
Why I Hate the Booth Babe Story, a Guest Editorial by Holly A.
“The State Department, however, was meeting the Red menace with “basic timidity,” he complained to a friend, and Dean Acheson, who became its secretary in 1949, was a “pantywaist,” he told Jones.”
“Alas, we have a lightweight Harvard lawyer who is too much of a pantywaist to achieve most of his pie-in-the-campaign-sky feel-good agenda.”
Petraeus: Violence will ratchet up in Afghanistan as troops arrive
“January 4th, 2010 2: 12 pm ET what a total scumbag loser. only cowardly crooks switch parties after being elected. a pantywaist has more guts!”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘pantywaist’.
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Public List: Body Metaphors
Phrases that use body parts metaphorically.
neck of the woods, bone of contention, mouth of a river, teeth of the storm, heart of the matter, foot of the bed, eye of the storm, dogleg hole, finger lakes, headwaters, foothills, knik arm and 212 more...
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Gapeseeds and Muckworms - Compound Derogatives
A list of compound derogatory names such as gapeseed, muckworm and lickspittle. Your one-word contributions to this list are welcome.
See sionnach's list derogatory terms I should use ...gapeseed, muckworm, lickspittle, makeweight, bootlicker, backscratcher, apple-polisher, backslapper, brownnoser, rakeshame, yesman, freeloader and 237 more...
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The insulting ones
ingrate, sycophant, inane, wanton, pompous, vitriolic, ghastly, cesspool, abhor, highfalutin, obsequious, insidious and 25 more...
chained_bear "A garment, usually for children, consisting of panties attached to a waist or bodice. Now rare."
I should hope so.
Also, "a weak or cowardly person." Feb 5, 2007