sissy n.
1. a weakling, an effeminate man or boy.
 | Launceston Wkly News 1 Sept. 3/1: Raking up all the little condescending words [...] and applying them to the ‘’ittle sissy’ or ‘baby boy’. | |
| Burlington (IA) Weekly Hawk Eye 5 Apr. 6/4: Julian Hawthorne [i.e. son of Nathaniel] came home from Italy when a very small boy. He wore long curls, and the Concord boys plagued him in the usual tough way of boys. They called him ‘Sissy’ and ‘Yankee Doodle,’ and finally they ridiculed the poor lad till he petitioned for a barber to cut off his locks. | |
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | Lantern (N.O.) 27 Aug. 3: [They] look and walk too much like sissies to do much fightin’. | |
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | Gloucester Citizen 11 June 3/2: The Americans have invented a new term for the dude (Anglicé ‘masher’). It is ‘sissy’. | |
| Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 22 May 2/2: I wonder that Courtney Thorpe [...] wasn’t cast for one of the ladies of the burlesque. That gentle man is getting more sissy-like every year. | |
| Fables in Sl. (1902) 54: The other Boys used to make Faces at him over the Back fence and call him ‘Sis.’. | |
| Tales 131: Well, you are a sissy [DA]. | |
![[Can]](/static/img/flags/can.png "Canada") | Vancouver Dly World 11 Oct. 10/4: A ‘sissy’ is an incomplete man [...] He has none of the masculine traits of a man and not one of the good qualities of a woman. | |
| Swindon Advertiser 3 Nov. 8/6: Boys of the average kind [...] remember [...] when their exact attire called forth the twerm ‘sissy boy’. | |
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | Duke Tritton’s Letter n.p.: I can go into the Rubbity Dub and have a lemonade [...] and no one ever laughs at me or calls me sissy because I am drinking lolly water. | |
| Salt Lake Herald Repub. (UT) 19 Dec. 52/3: ‘Ha — we wouldn’t play football with a sissy’. | |
| Dawn O’Hara (1925) 43: The hero is a milk-and-water sissy, without a vital spark in him. | |
| Pittsburg Post-Gaz. (PA) 24 Mar. 4/7: They stood on the sidewalk and jeered [...] ‘Sissy boy, sissy boy’. | |
| ‘Clipped Words’ in DN IV:ii 121: sis, from sister. [...] ‘He’s a regular sis.’. | |
| ‘Bill’s Grave’ in Rhymes of a Red Cross Man 83: ’E’d call me a slobberin’ Cissy, and larf till ’is sides was sore. | |
| Over the Top 73: I glanced again at my wrist-watch. We all wore them and you could hardly call us ‘sissies’ for doing so. | |
| Coffeyville Dly Jrnl 1 Mar. 3/1: The class of men engaged in transportation of booze are not sissy-boys. | |
| Nigger Heaven 233: Just a bunch of sissies! | |
| (con. WWI) ‘So This Is Flanders!’ Battle Stories July 🌐 They tell me he’s a reg’lar cissy: one o’ them slap-yer-wrist, awfter-noon-tea artists. | |
| (con. 1917–18) War Bugs 282: A Y.M.C.A. lady emerged and [...] sang a song about a fellow named Laddie; and if Laddie wasn’t a bit of a sis we didn’t know our onions. | |
| (con. 1910s) Young Lonigan in Studs Lonigan (1936) 77: Johnny and Studs laughed, and told him that the Glass kid was nothing but a sissy. | |
| (con. 1920s) Young Manhood in Studs Lonigan (1936) 245: Jim Clayburn’s dude father [...] Must have been something of a sissy and teacher’s pet in his own day. | |
| Dead End Act I: Sissy, sissy, sucks his mamma’s titty! | |
| Thieves Slang ms list from District Police Training Centre, Ryton-on-Dunsmore, Warwicks n.p.: Cissies: Effeminate male persons. | |
| (con. 1830s–60s) All That Swagger 187: Gerald retorted that if she wanted a sissy who was not somebody’s leavings she would have to clutch him straight from the cradle. | |
| Gentlemen of the Broad Arrows 118: He’ll be telling everybody [...] we’re a lot of sissies. | |
| St Louis Post-Dispatch (MO) 11 Feb. 14/5: Sissy-boy Simpson: You must think me a perfect fool. | |
| Hysterical Hist. of Aus. 61: He’s just an old sis, that’s what he is. | |
| These Are My People (1957) 42: They were [back] but without Jim, who, I understand, was regarded as a siss. | |
| We Were the Rats 153: He’s a bloody cissy. [...] Yous mark me words, he won’t be worth a crumpet in action, not worth a bloody crumpet. | |
| Really the Blues 134: He thought the farmers were sissies to worry about sunstroke. | |
| Jennings Goes To School 81: Everyone’ll think you’re the most radio-active sissy if you don’t. | |
| Beckley Post-Herald (WV) 11 Dec. 9/2: Ross [...] was no ‘sissy,’ no ‘panty waist’. | |
| Jimmy Brockett 80: ‘You seem so different tonight, Jimmy. Gentler.’ ‘By hang, I’m not sounding like a sis, am I?’ [Ibid.] 251: I wasn’t so worried about him falling and anyway you can’t bring up your kid to be a sissy. | |
| World of Paul Slickey Act I: He is prissy, he’s a cissy. | |
| (con. c.1935) London E1 (2012) 79: ‘Teacher’s fav’rite [...] Sissy!’ [ibid.] 82: ‘Roll up [...] come an’ see the noo sissy-boy!’. | |
| Mr Madam (1967) 31: I just knew that whenever anyone said anything about a sissy or being sissified they meant me! | |
| Bunch of Ratbags 77: To hear him speak to anyone, you would think he was a ciss. | |
| 5000 Adult Sex Words and Phrases. | |
| Adolescent Boys of East London (1969) 40: My mate Arthur came along and he said I was a cissy to help my mum, so I stopped. | |
| Plender [ebook] You could always find some kind of a game to play with cissies. | |
| Bottle-O! 41: You’re a sis. Soft. | |
| Of Minnie the Moocher and Me 141: Benny was no sissy. | |
| No Exceptions in Best Radio Plays (1984) 119: Grabbing a pencil and copying off Donald ’cos he’s too much of a cissy to stop you. | |
| Silence of the Lambs (1991) 316: He was a big sissy. | |
![[SA]](/static/img/flags/sa.png "South Africa") | ‘Score Me the Ages’ Born in the RSA (1997) 136: I’m waiting for my boetie, my niggie my sissie. | |
| et al. Wayne’s World II [film script] Old age is for Sissies . . . Not! | |
| Never a Normal Man 129: I thought of my new friend with admiration: what sissies if they left because of him. | |
| Guardian Editor 25 June 4: Is this because French men are sissies? Not at all. | |
| Beano 18 Sept. n.p.: All the men are wearing tights! Cissies! | |
| Guardian 14 Jan. 20: The Celts are no cissies. | |
| Last Precinct 429: I don’t hang out with no sissies. | |
![[Ire]](/static/img/flags/ire.png "Ireland") | (con. 1920s) Oh, Play that Thing 16: Go on, she said. —Don’t be a sis. | |
| Thrill City [ebook] [of a woman] I was turning into a sissy, a nancy, a goddam girl. Toughen the fuck up. | |
| Viva La Madness 275: Crystal meth is for sissies. | |
| Cherry 58: They cut a kid’s head so it was bleeding pretty good and he let on that he minded and they said he was a sissy. They wanted to know if he was from San Fran-sissy-co. | |
| Widespread Panic 14: He poked a Mexican sissy in reform school. |
2. (also sissy-queen, sis-queen) an effeminate homosexual man.
| ‘Sissy Blues’ 🎵 My man says sissies got good jelly roll. | |
| (con. 1917–19) Nineteen Nineteen in USA (1966) 479: One of these here sissies lookin’ for rough trade. | |
| Scarlet Pansy 72: These men are a bunch of sissies. Such lisping I’ve never heard before. | |
| ‘Believe Me’ in Afro-American (Baltimore, MD) 20 Oct. 12/3: There is a giant yellow sissy making the Harlem roiunds claiming his-her name is Greta Garbo from Chinatown. | |
| Pig and Pepper (1990) 270: Pat said he wasn’t a Cissie, so Watterson asked her how she was in a position to tell; which caused much laughter. | |
| Gentlemen of the Broad Arrows 225: There was one of those ‘cissies’ next door. | |
| On Broadway 12 Feb. [synd. col.] He’s never ogled the Radio City Rockettes in their undressing rooms [...] Not because he is any sissy or whoops-m’dear. | |
| Mister Jelly Roll (1952) 45: Tony happened to be one of those gentlemens that a lot of people call them lady or sissy. | |
| Cat on a Hot Tin Roof Act II: Ducking sissies? Queers? | |
| All Night Stand 89: Don’t get all riled at them dirty long-haired sissies. | |
| Tales (1969) 19: I saw that ol’ fagit Bobby Hutchens [...] with a real D.C. queer. I mean a real way-type sissy. | |
| Dopefiend (1991) 267: It was tall Donna Jean, a sissy who worked in drag. | |
| Queens’ Vernacular 74: stereotype effeminate homosexual [...] sis [sy-] queen. [Ibid.] 181: sis (voc) an endearment. | |
| (con. 1950s) Whoreson 130: You’re about as useful as a doctor... as a penis is on a sissy. | |
| Runnin’ Down Some Lines 161: Teenage males identify homosexuals [...] in ‘feminine’ terms: sissy, punk, sweet. | |
| ‘Histoire Vache’ (in On the Yankee Station 1982) 103: There had been disparaging remarks about the effeminate, gelded sissies. | |
| Eng. Madam 100: ‘If a man wants to get into woman’s clothes then he must be a cissy’ – that was his line. | |
| Life and Times of Little Richard 20: The kids would call me faggot, sissy, freak, punk. | |
| (con. early 1950s) L.A. Confidential 21: I never truck with no sissies. | |
| Homeboy 151: Don’t fuck with sissies. | |
| diary 27 June Smiling in Slow Motion (2000) 156: An international gathering of sissies. | |
| (con. 1970s) King Suckerman (1998) 87: It wasn’t like he was anybody’s sissy. | |
| Pimp’s Rap 35: I felt like a sissy in boy’s town. | |
| Blackboiz for Other Boiz 🌐 12 Jan. You must be ht/wt proportionate, and physically fit. No sissies, please. | |
| (con. 1962) Enchanters 355: Chino [jail, CA] was kicks. Me and Paul Mitchell drank pruno and poked sissies. |
3. see sis n.
In derivatives
dressed up, with an inference of effeminacy; also in fig. use.
| Tri-County News (King City, MO) 5 Nov. 2/1: We always suspected John didn’t really care for coffee, even sissied up with sugar and cream. | |
| Western Mail (Perth) 21 Mar. 17/3: E’s a reg’ler guy — don’t like a feller to be all sissy’d up. | |
| Who Could Ask for Anything More 21: I don’t like them all sissied up with the anchovies and the stuff they load on if you don't tell them not to. Just give me the raw meat. | |
| Cincinnati Enquirer (OH) 12 Feb. 5/4: Ladies in retirement wear peppermint sissied up with ruffles. | |
| News-Press (Ft Myers, IL) 17 July 4D/3: Before you know it they’ll have you all sissied up. | |
| Reno Gaz.-Jrnl (NM) 20 June 35/1: The premise was that the game was worth something once, but has been sissied up until it’s just outdoor pool. | |
| Dominatrix on Trial 187: He was always sissied up to the nines, usually in a French maid’s uniform. |
In compounds
a metal loop fixed behind the seat of a cycle or motorcycle.
| Hell’s Angels (1967) 103: Tall dagger-designed chrome rails (called ‘sissy bars’) for a passenger hand hold. | |
| Chopper Mag. Apr. 55: A NEW LOOK IN SISSY BARS. [...] Sissy bars began to get popular about 10 years ago. | |
| Chopper Mag. June 46/2: The sissy bar — or goody bar as it’s called in Berdoo. | |
| (con. 1970s) King Suckerman (1998) 100: He [...] leaned back against the sissy bar. | |
| Right As Rain 127: A prussian helmet was hung by its chin strap on the sissy bar of an old Harley. | |
| Razorblade Tears 258: [A] chopped hog with ape hangers and a high sissy bar in the back. |
(US) a weakling; a male homosexual; also attrib.
| Medical Mirror 6 80: I don’t want to say anything about bangs, lest they might suspect me of trenching upon the prerogatives of style in the lady, the mule, the sissy boy and the poet. | |
| Bucky O’Connor (1910) 74: I know I’m a cry-baby, sissy boy. | |
| Fra Feb. 69/1: The sissy-boy and the mollycoddle were not in evidence [DA]. | |
| Really the Blues 136: Rubbing elbows with gentle people like Capone’s sissy-boys and the Purple Gang goody-goodies. | |
| Bold Saboteurs (1971) 155: He was just a sissy boy then with baggy pants and a flutter to his eyelids. | |
| Get Your Ass in the Water (1974) 155: This little bundle of joy was a sissy boy, / you know, a female man. | |
| Garden of Sand (1981) 208: A sissyboy who’d never taken that initial real shot in the kisser to know what he was. | |
| ‘Sports and the Macho Male’ in Jay & Young (1979) 390: It added to the stigma that tennis was a ‘sissy-boy’ sport. | |
| (con. late 1940s) Tattoo (1977) 592: ‘Yea-uh, you some kinda sissy’s ass,’ he mocked himself in black dialect. ‘Maybe you some kinda faggot too.’. | |
| Runnin’ Down Some Lines 38: Sissy boy, hangin’ ’round his momma all the time. | |
| Thing-Fish [album] A plot fo de systematic GENOCIDICAL REMOVE’LANCE of all unwanted highly-rhythmic individj’lls an’ sissy-boys! | |
| Perv (2001) 82: You’re some kinda sissy-boy, aren’tcha? | |
| (ref. to 1937) in Sun among Cities 199: When Charles C, a 21 year-old vanboy, was arrested in a club in 1937, he told police ‘they call me cissie boy’. | |
| I, Fatty 26: I betcha [...] you turn out to be some sissy-boy. | |
| Flawed 29: Stop making him read [...] He’ll turn into a sissy boy. I’m not having a sissy boy for a son. |
(US drugs) tapering off a narcotic addiction rather than stopping immediately (with the concomitant withdrawal pains).
| Narcotics Lingo and Lore. |
a weakling; thus an effeminate homosexual man.
| Asphalt Jungle in Four Novels (1984) 225: Oh, a sissy-pants, eh? | |
| Sailor 27: Sissy britches, that’s all he is, Donnen muttered. | |
| Bastards I Have Known 27: He spent most of the afternoon with ‘sissy-britches’ as we fondly called his house companion. | |
| Mad mag. Apr. 15: The only action hero ever to get called ‘sissypants’. |
see sense 2 above.
(US Und.) a weapon fitted with a silencer.
| et al. DAUL 195/1: Sissy rod. Any piece of firearms fitted with a silencer. |
(US black) a weak, effeminate man (though not necessarily a homosexual).
| ‘Above The Law’ 🎵 Livin’ Like Hustlers [album] Yo, pass me the forty, I commence to dent / A sissy soft sucker with no title. |