Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Infantile; childish.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Same as
infantile .
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective Infantile; childish.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective
Infantile ;childish
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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That, surely, is why the word infantine was rightly used in our first paragraph.
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He knew that constable intimately, but refrained from taking notice of him, and passed on with an air and expression which were meant to convey the idea of infantine innocence.
Dusty Diamonds Cut and Polished A Tale of City Arab Life and Adventure 1859
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Dr. Peschel places particular stress on this circumstance, and alludes to the habit of over-indulgent parents among refined nations of conforming to the humours of their children by conversing with them in a kind of infantine language, until they are several years old.
The Child and Childhood in Folk-Thought Studies of the Activities and Influences of the Child Among Primitive Peoples, Their Analogues and Survivals in the Civilization of To-Day Alexander F. Chamberlain
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She was indeed improbably pretty, small, plump and very fair, with soft golden hair that was silky and yet fluffy, perfectly regular little features, and a kind of infantine sweetness, combined with an almost incredible cleverness that was curious and fascinating.
Bird of Paradise Ada Leverson 1897
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... produces infinite [or 'infantine'] Joy — while the overbusy worldlings are buzzed round by night-flies in
Notes on 'Captivation and Liberty in Wordsworth's Poems on Music' 2008
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St. Stephen's still echoes the infantine Ch-rch-ll
The Storm 2010
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There her manner of singing is described as "infantine and unsustained," characterized by a continual "effort to do that which, in fact, from natural qualifications, she could do without any effort at all."
Cast and Characters 2008
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The eye of the invalid was caught by it, as that of a child by a glittering toy, and with infantine impatience he faltered out inquiries of his niece.
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Men were disguised as women, and women as men — children wore the dress of aged people, and tottered with crutch-sticks in their hands, furred gowns on their little backs, and caps on their round heads — while grandsires assumed the infantine tone as well as the dress of children.
The Abbot 2008
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I have said, that she also was a promising pupil of the good father, upon whom her innocent and infantine beauty had an effect of which he was himself, perhaps, unconscious.
The Monastery 2008
yarb commented on the word infantine
Citation on mewl.
September 18, 2008
yarb commented on the word infantine
For a second he pondered it; then asked with an accent that pierced her because it was so infantine, so shamelessly mendicant of comfort: "She really was all right, Ellen?"
- Rebecca West, The Judge
September 12, 2009