Webster
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Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Feminine

Fem′i·nine (fĕm′ĭ·nĭn), a. [L. femininus, fr. femina woman; prob. akin to L. fetus, or to Gr. θῆσθαι to suck, θῆσαι to suckle, Skr. dhā to suck; cf. AS. fǣmme woman, maid: cf. F. féminin. See Fetus.] 1. Of or pertaining to a woman, or to women; characteristic of a woman; womanish; womanly.

Her letters are remarkably deficient in feminine ease and grace. Macaulay.

2. Having the qualities of a woman; becoming or appropriate to the female sex; as, in a good sense, modest, graceful, affectionate, confiding; or, in a bad sense, weak, nerveless, timid, pleasure-loving, effeminate.

Her heavenly form Angelic, but more soft and feminine. Milton.

Ninus being esteemed no man of war at all, but altogether feminine, and subject to ease and delicacy. Sir W. Raleigh.

Feminine rhyme. (Pros.) See Female rhyme, under Female, a.

Syn. — See Female, a.

Fem′i·nine, n. 1. A woman. [Obs. or Colloq.]

They guide the feminines toward the palace. Hakluyt.

2. (Gram.) Any one of those words which are the appellations of females, or which have the terminations usually found in such words; as, actress, songstress, abbess, executrix.

There are but few true feminines in English. Latham.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty. Of the others, 1,362 (a word or a single letter each) were inferred by AI from the context by the dictionary’s own rules and are marked with a wavy underline (tap or point at one to see the note); the rest, which could not be inferred with confidence, are left as “?”.