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
They dive into the players’ sensibilities and seem to understand that being weird, effete or ambivalent might be part of these athletes’ power.
From New York Times ● Jun. 28, 2022
The odes are so beautiful — and Keats’s image as a sensualist, an effete Romantic aesthete, so firmly established — that it is easy to overlook how philosophically accomplished and profound they are.
From Washington Post ● Feb. 25, 2021
Traditionally, effete has meant “barren,” “used up,” or “worn out.”
From "Woe Is I" by Patricia T. O'Conner
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