pantywaist n : a timid man or boy considered childish or unassertive [syn: sissy, pansy, milksop, Milquetoast]

English

Adjective

1. In the context of "informal|dated|especially of a male person": Weak, timid, effeminate, ineffectual.

   His rough, burly father was mortified by the lad's pantywaist behavior.

Noun

1. In the context of "informal|dated": A children's undergarment composed, in part, of panties attached to a waistband.
   • 1929, "The Altman Sale of Children's Underwear" (display advertisement), The New York Times, 28 Apr, p. 16.

     Lace trimmed panty waists—50 cents.

2. In the context of "pejorative|dated": An ineffectual, weak, or timid person, especially a boy or young man; a sissy.
   • 1943, Hal Borland, "'Baedekers' for Our Fighters: So you're going abroad, says Uncle Sam," The New York Times, 24 Jan, p. SM14.

     Don't be misled by the British tendency to be soft-spoken and polite. The English language didn't spread across the oceans and over the mountains and jungles and swamps because these people were pantywaists.

References

• Dictionary.com
• Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., 1989.

Pantywaist can mean:

• a slang term for an effeminate man
• an obsolete term for a child's one-piece bodysuit

Lord Fauntleroy, Milquetoast, Percy, baby, big baby, chicken, cream puff, crybaby, doormat, dull tool, effeminate, goody-goody, gutless wonder, invertebrate, jellyfish, lightweight, lily, meek soul, milksop, mollycoddle, namby-pamby, nance, nancy, nebbish, nonentity, old woman, pansy, pushover, sad sack, sissy, softling, softy, sop, weak sister, weakling, wishy-washy