• Puerile

    Pronunciation

    • RP IPA: /ˈpjÊŠÉ™.raɪl/
    • US IPA: /ˈpjÊŠrɪl/, /ˈpjÊŠraɪl/

    Origin

    From Latin puerīlis ("childish"), from puer ("child, boy").

    Full definition of puerile

    Adjective

    puerile

    1. Characteristic of, or pertaining to, a boy or boys; confer: puellile.
    2. Childish; trifling; silly.
      • unknown date De Quincey:The French have been notorious through generations for their puerile affectation of Roman forms, models, and historic precedents.
      • 1927, Thornton Wilder, , page 79:From the table he had received the gout; from the alcove a tendency to convulsions; from the grandeeship a pride so vast and puerile that he seldom heard anything that was said to him and talked to the ceiling in a perpetual monologue; from the exile, oceans of boredom, a boredom so persuasive that it was like pain,—he woke up with it and spent the day with it, and it sat by his bed all night watching his sleep.

    Synonyms

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