How to Use effete in a Sentence

effete

adjective
  • Once again, there are the effete snobs and the salt-of-the-earth people who tolerate them.
    — TIME, 9 Oct. 2023
  • The guns were symbols of outdoorsmanship, both rugged and effete.
    — Washington Post, 12 Apr. 2022
  • Zimmer is an effete, hapless bozo, which lets Mr Carell put pathos and need front and centre.
    — The Economist, 25 June 2020
  • If Chuck in South Orange wants his red meat, then who are those effete Times editors to serve him veggie wraps?
    — Will Oremus, Slate Magazine, 14 Apr. 2017
  • As the effete mentor to Wayne in the film's first half, Neeson nicely toys with the audience without tipping his hand.
    — Declan Gallagher, EW.com, 17 Feb. 2023
  • On the surface, a Pittman painting might seem to conjure effete mannerism.
    — Los Angeles Times, 13 Sep. 2019
  • Viewed from the south, San Francisco is a pretentious and prettified crackerbox of a city, foggy and filled with a bunch of weirdos and effete snobs.
    — Los Angeles Times, 8 Oct. 2021
  • Day's Sir Harcourt, with his ebony-dyed locks and effete manners, shares lineage with the fops of Restoration comedy.
    — Kerry Reid, chicagotribune.com, 27 June 2017
  • Haynes is an effete pop-nerd who imitates pop-culture precedents.
    — Armond White, National Review, 15 Oct. 2021
  • If anything it was meant to signal a reminder that to me the best indie pop is not introspective, cardigan-clad and effete but loud, unhinged and vital.
    — Natalie Weiner, Billboard, 14 July 2017
  • Even effete artists have to track inventory and control labor costs.
    — Michael Taylor, ExpressNews.com, 12 June 2020
  • The Nero meme leaves the impression of an effete dilettante, confident in his own genius only because nobody had the guts to tell him otherwise.
    — Gaia Squarci, Smithsonian Magazine, 18 Sep. 2020
  • For you effete coastal residents who are unfamiliar with the delights of flyover country, DQ means Dairy Queen.
    — George Will, Twin Cities, 20 Oct. 2019
  • For you effete coastal residents who are unfamiliar with the delights of flyover country, DQ means Dairy Queen.
    — George Will, Twin Cities, 20 Oct. 2019
  • For you effete coastal residents who are unfamiliar with the delights of flyover country, DQ means Dairy Queen.
    — George Will, Twin Cities, 20 Oct. 2019
  • For you effete coastal residents who are unfamiliar with the delights of flyover country, DQ means Dairy Queen.
    — George Will, National Review, 20 Oct. 2019
  • For you effete coastal residents who are unfamiliar with the delights of flyover country, DQ means Dairy Queen.
    — George F. Will, The Denver Post, 19 Oct. 2019
  • For you effete coastal residents who are unfamiliar with the delights of flyover country, DQ means Dairy Queen.
    — George Will, National Review, 20 Oct. 2019
  • For you effete coastal residents who are unfamiliar with the delights of flyover country, DQ means Dairy Queen.
    — George Will, Twin Cities, 20 Oct. 2019
  • Here, in a nutshell, is the Romantic idea of Nature: Human society is stale, predictable, effete.
    — Martha C. Nussbaum, The New York Review of Books, 17 Nov. 2022
  • The early part of the film, filled with Elliott’s effete insults, simpering and whining, doesn’t establish an endearing mood.
    — oregonlive, 27 Mar. 2020
  • There, Janetti often pokes fun at the royals, and developed a persona for his version of Prince George—a sassy, effete royal commentator.
    — Annie Goldsmith, Town & Country, 3 Aug. 2021
  • The former investment banker is attacked both by Le Pen and his critics to the left as an effete figure ruling for the rich, disconnected from the concerns of ordinary French workers.
    — Washington Post, 7 Apr. 2022
  • Benjamin Pelteson plays Isaac, the art curator as sophisticated to the point of effete.
    — Joanne Ostrow, The Know, 11 Apr. 2017
  • The once-nerdy kid has become a blue-collar first responder just like grandfather Martin, and has nothing in common with his snobbish, effete father.
    — Alan Sepinwall, Rolling Stone, 9 Oct. 2023
  • The French nobles are effete and opportunistic, and serve an unworthy monarch: at Timbers’s request, the Dauphin’s cape has been altered to include a hoodie with dangling white drawstrings.
    — Rebecca Mead, The New Yorker, 20 Mar. 2017
  • Usually interpreted as a mannerism of effete tea-drinkers, the pointed pinky is actually a threat aimed at gays, who were forced to wear pink triangles by the Nazis.
    — James Lileks, National Review, 19 Dec. 2019
  • It’s also Östlund’s overstated Kubrickian misanthropy — an effete response to everything that has gone wrong in the world lately.
    — Armond White, National Review, 26 Oct. 2022
  • The political orientations remain the same each time, which seems a bit trite—the effete lib having his soymobile rescued by some diesel-guzzling alpha.
    — Rafil Kroll-Zaidi, Harper’s Magazine , 17 Aug. 2022
  • So at least Belichick has experience overcoming an effete ground game.
    — BostonGlobe.com, 31 Oct. 2019

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'effete.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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