adj. 1. a. Characterized by extreme refinement or self-indulgence, often to the point of unworldiness or decadence: "the effete taste of people surfeited with expensive comforts" (R.P.T. Davenport-Hines). b. Having or reflecting an attitude of social superiority; pretentious or snobbish: "Throughout its amateur era tennis was a country club sport, denigrated as elitist and effete" (Stuart Miller). 2. Depleted of vitality, force, or effectiveness; exhausted: the effete monarchies of Europe. 3. Effeminate: "As a manly adventurer ... [Saint Paul] seemed the perfect rebuttal to our great, if unspoken, fear that the celibate vocation was effete" (James Carroll). 4. Archaic No longer productive; infertile. [Latin effētus, worn out, exhausted : ex-, ex- + fētus, bearing young, pregnant; see dhē(i)- in the Appendix of Indo-European roots.] ef·fetely adv. ef·feteness n. |
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