MINCING

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does mincing mean? 

• MINCING (adjective)
  The adjective MINCING has 1 sense:

1. affectedly dainty or refined

  Familiarity information: MINCING used as an adjective is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• MINCING (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Affectedly dainty or refined

Synonyms:

mincing; niminy-piminy; prim; twee

Similar:

refined ((used of persons and their behavior) cultivated and genteel)

 Context examples 

He slowed down to an alert and mincing walk and then stopped.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

“A smoker, Mr. Holmes?” said he, speaking in well-chosen English, with a curious little mincing accent.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

“Hold it safe, father,” the other answered, in the same soft, mincing dialect.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

He spoke with fire and conviction, mincing no words in his attack upon the slaves and their morality and tactics and frankly alluding to his hearers as the slaves in question.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

They turned their shoulders to her most savage slashes, and with wagging tails and mincing steps strove to placate her wrath.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

"My dear," she told her sister in a high mincing shout, "most of these fellas will cheat you every time. All they think of is money. I had a woman up here last week to look at my feet and when she gave me the bill you'd of thought she had my appendicitus out."

(The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald)