On the left: a photograph of a blurred womanly figure, her white dress smeared into an avian or angelic wingspan, her head eerily effaced, allowing the forest behind her to show sharply through.
—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
1 Dec. 2025
Tarun would tease her, and my mother would look sorrowfully toward Kavitha, as if the two of them now shared some womanly burden.
In the band’s heyday, Anthony Kiedis, with his bare torso and long girlish copper-blond hair, looked like a ’70s teen idol who’d become a Warhol hustler – a street-flesh god like Joe Dallesandro, except that where Dallesandro was in a daze, Kiedis was a live wire.
—
Owen Gleiberman,
Variety,
13 Mar. 2026
Candiace ditched her glitzy Housewives looks in favor of prim and proper twin sets and girlish headbands that conveyed an image of innocence and charm, a masterful choice for a game in which perception is everything.
Throughout the 1900s, and even into the ‘80s and ’90s, women often were encouraged to be more effeminate, and male counterparts were told to embrace their masculinity.
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
show current usage.Read More
Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.
Send us feedback.