Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A state of arrested development in an adult, characterized by retention of infantile mentality, accompanied by stunted growth and sexual immaturity, and often by dwarfism.
  • noun Marked immaturity, as in behavior or character.
  • noun An infantile act or remark.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Arrested or retrogressive development; the persistence or recurrence in the adult of those characteristics which are normal, but transient, in the child.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun An emotional dependency on being treated as an infant.
  • noun A sexual dependency on the sight or feeling of diapers, or being diapered.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun infantile behavior in mature persons
  • noun an abnormal condition in which an older child or adult retains infantile characteristics

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

See infant.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word infantilism.

Examples

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • "Does any of this explain the star's infantilism? Jackson did not have a sweet childlike nature, living in a perpetual Wendy world. Far from it. The evidence at his trial showed that he was a caricature of the cynical, calculated and predatory adult, soaked in booze and drugs, constantly conniving to manipulate children into a coercive environment where he could exploit them as he wished without bearing the consequences."

    - Robert Kaplan, A talent for lies and abuse, theaustralian.com.au, 8 July 2009.

    July 8, 2009

  • man, does that author not know about the rest of the Jackson family.

    July 8, 2009