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pearl-clutching. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
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English
Etymology
From the image of a genteel woman clutching her pearl necklace in shock.
Pronunciation
Adjective
pearl-clutching (comparative more pearl-clutching, superlative most pearl-clutching)
- (idiomatic, derogatory) Prim, prudish, or easily offended.
2007, Amanda Marcotte, It's a Jungle Out There: The Feminist Survival Guide to Politically Inhospitable Environments, Seal Press, →ISBN, page 141:When John Kerry “outed” Mary Cheney in a 2004 presidential debate, it was already well known that Mary Cheney was a lesbian. You can't out the already out, no matter what pearl-clutching pundits would have you believe.
2010, April Winchell, Regretsy: Where DIY Meets WTF, Villard Books, →ISBN, page 131:Even the biggest doe-eyed, pearl-clutching Etsy muffin has to find some way to make it okay to be negative, because we have no choice.
2013, Jeff Smith, Jessica Abel, Matt Madden, editors, The Best American Comics 2013, Houghton Mifflin, →ISBN, page 362:There's something truly irresistible about the pearl-clutching cartoons that came out during the time people thought women on bicycles were single-handedly going to bring society to ruin.
- For more quotations using this term, see Citations:pearl-clutching.
Synonyms