niminy-piminy
/ˌnɪmɪnɪˈpɪmɪni
/adjective
Affectedly prim or refined: she had a niminy-piminy ladylike air...
- And so it has gone on, leaving tea to be the preserve of a niminy-piminy minority of the American upper-crust, who don't appear to know how to make it properly either.
- No longer is Art Theft a refined craft of niminy-piminy alarm evasion, but more and more a matter of going in with all the guns blazing.
- Who can ever forget Jo in Little Women, who was really Louisa, the girl who, when reproved for whistling by Amy, the art-loving sister, says: ‘I hate affected, niminy-piminy chits!’
Origin
Late 18th century: fanciful coinage; compare with namby-pamby.
Rhymes
- electrothermy
- electrotin
- electrotinning
- electro-tinplate
- electro-tin plating
- electrotint
- electrotonic
- electrotonically
- electrotonicity
- electrotonus
- electrotractor
- electrotransfer
- electrotropic
- electrotropism
- electrotype
- electrotyper
- electrotypist
- electrovalence
- electrovalency
- electrovalent
- electroviscosity
- electroviscous
- electro-vital
- electro-vitalism
- electroweak