adv. [f. WOMANISH a. + -LY2.] In a womanish manner or style.
1573. Baret, Alv., W 319. Womannishly, faintly, fearfully, muliebriter.
1579. Twyne, Phis. agst. Fortune, II. lxvi. 242. When as she womanishly lamented that he should die an innocent.
1665. Brathwait, Comm. Two Tales (1901), 13. To have his hair curled, and so womanishly disheveled.
1731. G. Jeffreys, Merope, I. i. 2. Are we sunk so womanishly low, That we can only mourn, and rail, and pray?
a. 1845. T. O. Davis, Life Curran (1846), 69. They had … the same impassionate, womanishly sensitive hearts.
1860. Sir T. Martin, Horace, I. xxxvii. 65. A woman, yet not womanishly weak.
So Womanishness, the quality or state of being womanish.
1545. Ascham, Toxoph., I. (Arb.), 41. The minstrelsie of lutes … is farre more fitte for the womannishnesse of it to dwell in the courte among ladies.
1579–80. North, Plutarch, Theseus & Romulus (1595), 43. That his womanishenes was rather to satisfie lust, then of any great loue.
1607. Markham, Cavel., I. 25. Such as out of their flemye womanishnesse seeke for such secrets.
1664. H. More, Exp. 7 Epist., Pref. c vj b. The more-then-ordinary Womanishness of the Church of Rome in that Intervall.
1858. Househ. Words, XVIII. 414/1. There was no nonsense about Katie: no silly affectation of boyishness, no still sillier affectation of premature womanishness.
1860. Sat. Rev., 7 Jan., 12/2. The clergyman’s acquired womanishness probably includes that taste for management and household strategy which is a strongly marked feminine peculiarity.
1883. J. Hawthorne, Dust, I. 207. A certain softness or womanishness in his nature, which his masculine taste condemned.
