What does womanised mean?
Womanised is chiefly the British past tense and past participle of womanise, a verb with two established lines of meaning. In one, a person seeks to attract women, particularly for sexual purposes; this use is informal and is often applied to a man. In the other, someone is feminised, represented as a woman, or made to occupy a woman's role. The inflected form can therefore describe either a transformation, as when a fictional prince is turned into a queen, or behaviour associated with conspicuous heterosexual courtship. Context determines the intended sense. British spelling uses -ised, while American spelling normally has womanized. Although the verb overlaps with the more neutral feminised, it can carry stronger and potentially objectifying connotations, especially in its sense of pursuing women. It remains useful where a compact term for deliberate feminisation or conspicuous male attention to women is wanted.
verb (simple past and past participle)The British past tense and past participle of womanise, meaning to seek to attract women, especially for sexual purposes, or to feminise or treat someone as a woman.
- To seek to attract women, especially for sexual purposes; chiefly informal and often applied to a man.
- To feminise someone or represent or treat them as a woman.
"By the final act, the prince has been womanised and must play the queen."
"By the final act, the prince has been womanised and must play the queen."
"He spent the evening womanising women at the bar, much to his friends' amusement."
One word can mean both “made into a woman” and “tried to attract women.”
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of womanised
Womanised is the simple past and past participle of the English verb womanise. The verb is formed from woman and the productive suffix -ise, a suffix whose wider history passes through French and Latin to Greek -izein. Its meanings include both feminising or representing someone as a woman and, figuratively, seeking to attract women.
Related word forms
How womanised is actually used
The attraction sense is informal and may sound old-fashioned, jocular, disparaging, or objectifying. The feminisation sense can be literal, theatrical, or figurative. British spelling uses -ised, while American spelling normally uses -ized.
Easily confused with womanised
Womanised is the British spelling and inflected past form, whereas womanized is the usual American spelling of the same verb.