Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Unable to think clearly or infirm because of old age.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Old-womanish; imbecile: as, “puerile or anile ideas,” Walpole, Catalogue of Engravers.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Old-womanish; imbecile.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Characteristic of a crone or a feeble old woman.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective of or like a feeble old woman

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Latin anīlis, from anus, old woman.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin anīlis, from anus ("old woman").

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Examples

Comments

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  • the feminine counterpart of senile.

    July 24, 2008

  • I just heard a contestant guess this on Lingo. I was blown away when I found out it was a real word.

    January 22, 2009