wimp
a weak person
TRANSLATION
wimp = der Feigling, das Weichei, der Warmduscher --- GOOGLE INDEX wimp: approximately 2,200,000 hits
STATISTICS
IN THE PRESS
"I didn't really want to do it, but I didn't want to look like a WIMP."
(World champion skydiver Andy Belk talking about the first time his girlfriend invited him to go parachuting)
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If senior management create a culture that lunch is for WIMPS, it's counterproductive. We all need breaks.
(BBC News)
(World champion skydiver Andy Belk talking about the first time his girlfriend invited him to go parachuting)
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If senior management create a culture that lunch is for WIMPS, it's counterproductive. We all need breaks.
(BBC News)
Did you
know?
wimp
noun
- a person who is not strong, brave or confident
(Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary)
- a person who is regarded as weak or ineffectual
(American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
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WORD ORIGIN
Although the exact origin is unknown, wimp may stem from the verb "whimper," meaning to whine. Another possibility is that it derived from a character in the Popeye comic series called Wimpy, an intellectual, but cowardly man whose loves to eat hamburgers.
Wimp has an adjective form, wimpy or wimpish (He's a bit too wimpy to invite on a mountain bike tour) and a verb that usually takes the form of "wimp out" (He wimped out and refused to go mountain bike riding with us).
Politicians don't like being labelled as wimps. Whether it's cracking on down on crime, going after tax cheaters or organising a display of military power, voters in many countries expect their leading politicians to be tough John Wayne types. One election year in the U.S., television news moderator Cynthia Alksne of MSNBC was no great fan of the Republican presidential candidate Gary Bauer. She justified her opinion this way: "He violates my number one rule of voting," she said of Bauer. "Never vote for a guy you can beat up in a bar fight."
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SYNONYMS
chicken, jellyfish, mama's boy, milksop, quitter, scaredy-cat, sissy, sneak, weakling, wimp, yellow belly
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SMUGGLE OWAD INTO TODAY'S CONVERSATION:
"Call me a wimp if you like, but I will not ride on roller coasters."
noun
- a person who is not strong, brave or confident
(Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary)
- a person who is regarded as weak or ineffectual
(American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
---
WORD ORIGIN
Although the exact origin is unknown, wimp may stem from the verb "whimper," meaning to whine. Another possibility is that it derived from a character in the Popeye comic series called Wimpy, an intellectual, but cowardly man whose loves to eat hamburgers.
Wimp has an adjective form, wimpy or wimpish (He's a bit too wimpy to invite on a mountain bike tour) and a verb that usually takes the form of "wimp out" (He wimped out and refused to go mountain bike riding with us).
Politicians don't like being labelled as wimps. Whether it's cracking on down on crime, going after tax cheaters or organising a display of military power, voters in many countries expect their leading politicians to be tough John Wayne types. One election year in the U.S., television news moderator Cynthia Alksne of MSNBC was no great fan of the Republican presidential candidate Gary Bauer. She justified her opinion this way: "He violates my number one rule of voting," she said of Bauer. "Never vote for a guy you can beat up in a bar fight."
---
SYNONYMS
chicken, jellyfish, mama's boy, milksop, quitter, scaredy-cat, sissy, sneak, weakling, wimp, yellow belly
---
SMUGGLE OWAD INTO TODAY'S CONVERSATION:
"Call me a wimp if you like, but I will not ride on roller coasters."
