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Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. adj. Belonging to childhood; juvenile.
  2. adj. Immature; childish. See Synonyms at young.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. Of or pertaining to a boy or child; boyish; childish; juvenile.
  2. Hence Merely childish; lacking intellectual force; trivial: as, a puerile criticism.
  3. Synonyms Juvenile, Boyish, etc. (see youthful).
  4. Weak, foolish, silly.

Wiktionary

  1. adj. Characteristic of, or pertaining to, a boy or boys; confer: puellile.
  2. adj. Childish; trifling; silly.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. adj. Boyish; childish; trifling; silly.

WordNet 3.0

  1. adj. of or characteristic of a child
  2. adj. displaying or suggesting a lack of maturity

Etymologies

  1. Latin puerīlis, from puer, child, boy; see pau-1 in Indo-European roots.

Examples

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  • super-logos Puer is the Latin word for boy. Aug 7, 2008

‘puerile’ has been looked up 5659 times, loved by 17 people, added to 154 lists, commented on 1 time, and has a Scrabble score of 9.