English

Adjective

girlish ‎(comparative more girlish, superlative most girlish)

1. Like (that of) a girl; feminine.
   • 1850, Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter, Chapter 2,

     She saw her own face, glowing with girlish beauty, and illuminating all the interior of the dusky mirror in which she had been wont to gaze at it.

   • 1885, W. S. Gilbert, The Mikado, Act I,

     Three little maids from school are we, / Pert as a school-girl well can be, / Filled to the brim with girlish glee, / Three little maids from school!

   • 1898, William Watson, "Song" in The Hope of the World and Other Poems, London: John Lane, p. 41,

     April, April, / Laugh thy girlish laughter; / Then, the moment after, / Weep thy girlish tears!

2. (archaic) Of or relating to girlhood.
   • 1602, Richard Carew, The Survey of Cornwall, London: E. Law, 1769, pp. 119-20,

     This village was the birth-place of Thomasine Bonauenture, I know not, whether by descent, or euent, so called: for whiles in her girlish age she kept sheepe on the foreremembered moore, it chanced that a London merchant passing by, saw her […] .

Derived terms

• girlishly

See also

• schoolgirlish

Translations

See also

• boyish
• womanish