wimp

«wimp» in Mova's school dictionary: a person who is seen as weak, scared or not brave — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 1 sentence of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

noun (a wimp, wimps); verb (wimp out, wimps out, wimped out, wimping out); adjective wimpy

meaning for a pupil

1) (informal, unkind) A wimp is a person who is seen as weak, scared or not brave. tree →

2) (informal) To wimp out is to decide not to do something because you are scared. tree →

sense in the lessons

In everyday playground slang and stories, children may call someone a wimp for being afraid of a ride or a spider; it can be teasing or bullying. In lessons about kindness, calling names hurts. Phrases: don't be a wimp, wimp out of, a bit of a wimp.

examples

• Don't be a wimp, the water isn't that cold! tree →
• I wimped out of going on the big roller coaster. tree →
• He's not a wimp; he's just careful. tree →
• My brother is a wimp about spiders. tree →
• Calling someone a wimp can hurt their feelings. tree →
• She almost wimped out, but then she jumped. tree →

note

Informal and a bit rude; do not use it in formal writing or to hurt someone. Similar slang: chicken, scaredy-cat, wuss (rude). Being careful is not the same as being a wimp. Past: wimped out.

In the corpora

• Sam won't climb the fence into the building site, so Jake calls him a wimp.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «wimp» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.