▪ I. wimp1 slang.
(wɪmp)
[Origin uncertain; perh. an abbreviated corruption of women.]
A woman or girl.
‘Wimp was also used as a verb at Oxford c. 1917, e.g. to go wimping’ (M. Marples, University Slang (1950), p. 98).
| 1923 J. Manchon Le Slang 338 Wimp, femme, fille, donzelle. 1937 Partridge Dict. Slang 959/1 Wimp, a (young) woman, a girl: from ca. 1920. 1940 [see Skinny Liz s.v. skinny a. 6]. |
▪ II. wimp2 slang (orig. U.S.).
(wɪmp)
[Origin uncertain; perh. f. whimper (cf. Eng. dial. wimp (of a dog) to whine).]
A feeble or ineffectual person; one who is spineless or ‘wet’. (Used only as a term of abuse or contempt.)
| 1920 Ade Hand-made Fables 97 Next day he sought out the dejected Wimp. 1964 Amer. Speech XXXIX. 119 A baff is ‘a person who does silly things deliberately’; but wimp is still mysterious and undefined in my notes. 1966 Current Slang Winter 8 Wimp, a backward person... He's a real wimp on a date. 1970 New York 16 Nov. 10/2 That Goodell, he's nothing but a wimp. And this Ottinger, it got so I couldn't stand the sight of him. 1976 New Mus. Express 31 July 8/2 Although he's best known here as a fairly muscular MOR wimp,..he has a big reputation as a prodigiously talented multi-media whizz in the States. 1979 T. Gifford Hollywood Gothic (1980) xxii. 220 Solly Roth and his wimp of a son..what a wet bunch that family was. 1981 P. Theroux Mosquito Coast vi. 48, I can afford to be robbed... But what about the poor wimps who can't afford it? 1984 Sunday Tel. 30 Dec. 15/6 In daily life Ronnie Lee is a wimp. Put him in a balaclava and he thinks he's a he-man. 1985 She July 140/2 Masseur! Huh! He sounds a right little wimp. |
Add: 2. attrib. passing into adj.: = wimpish a.
| 1979 Washington Post 28 Dec. 31/3 New Wave to Nouveau Rave, folk rock to red-light rock and shoo-bop to wimp rock, ‘Le Freak’ was the quintessential thoughtless, summertime-and-the-livin'-is-easy hot production single. 1982 New Musical Express 30 Oct. 26/3 The weak wimp American. 1984 New Yorker 26 Mar. 51/3 Gordy had a..desire for a..sweatshirt bearing the motto ‘Niceness is Down for the Count’, but some wimp clerk..refused to print it. 1991 Wine & Spirits Apr. 46/2 The total aroma profile of the full malolactic wine..is huge. This is no wimp wine. It's Paul Bunyan, overalls and all. |
▪ III. wimp, v. N. Amer. slang.
(wɪmp)
[f. wimp n.2]
intr. With out: to fail to act or to avoid an undertaking, through weakness of character or intention; to ‘chicken out’.
| 1981 Washington Post 22 Nov. g7/1 She wondered if she had ‘wimped out’ when she tried ineffectually to convert Dohrn to her brand of radical feminism. 1986 Pony Sept. 13/3, I was going to go..but wimped out at the last minute. 1988 People 18 Apr. 57/3 Whenever I challenged her with a new task, she'd wimp out on me and cry. 1990 New England Monthly Mar. 47/2 One of the women suggested the night had already been very full and rewarding and she wasn't sure she needed to continue it. ‘Hey, are you wimping out?’ Patti asked. |