effete

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Mostly that has meant pretending to be a Real American by riding horses, going hunting or driving around in a pick-up to prove they aren’t some effete city slicker.

From Salon • Nov. 23, 2025

“I’ll go after him for being ‘this effete knower of arcane knowledge, who knows little tidbits that no one would care about.’

From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 27, 2023

He’s concerned about it, and so is the culture, which is rife with rituals meant to appease masculine anxiety about being effete, domesticated, or bloodless.

From Slate • Apr. 27, 2020

The low-budget action movies that the iconoclastic critic Manny Farber called “underground films” in an essay defiantly subtitled “a bit of male truth”— nothing effete about these flicks — were Hollywood mainstays through the 1950s.

From New York Times • Sep. 27, 2019

Traditionally, effete has meant “barren,” “used up,” or “worn out.”

From "Woe Is I" by Patricia T. O'Conner