Adjective

(en adjective)

(label) Of substances, quantities etc: exhausted, spent, worn-out.

*, II.4.1.v:

Nature is not effœte , as he saith, or so lavish, to bestow all her gifts upon an age, but hath reserved some for posterity, to shew her power, that she is still the same, and not old or consumed.

Of people: lacking strength or vitality; feeble, powerless, impotent.

*

Amid the effete monarchies and princedoms of feudal Europe, morally and materially exhausted by the Thirty Years' War, the only hope of resistance to France lay in the little Republic of merchants, Holland.

Decadent, weak through self-indulgence.

Effeminate.

*

a good-humored, effete boy brought up by maiden aunts.

Adjective

(en adjective)

(dialectal, or, archaic) About to die; doomed; on the verge of sudden or violent death.

(obsolete) Dying; dead.

(chiefly, Scottish) possessing second sight, clairvoyance, or clairaudience

overrefined, affected

* {{quote-magazine

, date=2006-01-01 , year= , month= , first= , last= , author=Jennifer Drapkin , coauthors= , title=Wrestling with Fame , volume=39 , issue=1 , page=50 , magazine=Psychology Today , publisher= , issn= citation , passage=Hoffman does not rely on his talent to carry him through a role. He spent five and a half months transmuting himself into Capote. … He lost 40 pounds and practiced the inscrutable voice and fey mannerisms for an hour or two every day. }}

* {{quote-book

, year=2009 , year_published= , edition= , editor= , author=Robert Cohen , title=Amateur Barbarians , chapter= citation , genre= , publisher=Simon and Schuster , isbn=9780743230360 , page=16 , passage=He'd stand at the board making jokes the kids didn't understand, improvising fey little couplets of dactylic verse. }}

* {{quote-magazine

, date= , year=2009 , month=Oct/Nov , first= , last= , author=Lucius Shepard , coauthors= , title=Halloween Town , volume=117 , issue=3/4 , page=129 , magazine=Fantasy and Science Fiction , publisher= , issn= , url= , passage= … he did not tell Mary Alonso, who had taken Dell's place as a source of gossip and information, and with whom he went out for drinks on occasion, usually along with Mary's partner, Roberta, a fey , freckly, dark-haired girl, … }}

* {{quote-book

, year=2011 , year_published= , edition= , editor= , author=Héctor Tobar , title=The Barbarian Nurseries , chapter= , url= , genre= , publisher=Farrar, Straus, and Giroux , isbn=9780374708931 , page= , passage=Guadalupe was a fey mexicana with long braids and a taste for embroidered Oaxacan blouses and overwrought indigenous jewelry, and also a former university student like Araceli. }}

* {{quote-magazine

, date= , year=2012 , month=Apr , first= , last= , author= , coauthors= , title=Field Guide: The Club Rules , volume= , issue= , page= , magazine=Town and Country , publisher= , issn= , url= , passage=Bespoke designer Kirk Miller, who offers a contemporary version at his Soho atelier, says, "A club collar shows that a man pays attention to detail. It's a simple way to communicate elegance." And please don't call it a Peter Pan, the club's fey sister. }}

* {{quote-web

, date= , year=2012 , first= , last= , author=Jeffery Goldberg , authorlink= , title=What's Your Problem , site=The Atlantic Montly citation , archiveorg= , accessdate=2012-09-17 , passage=Most Ivy League graduates are unaccustomed to pepper spray; perhaps he should spray himself in the face once or twice, to test his tolerance. He should also resist the urge to bring high-end camping equipment to protests—this will make him look fey and elitist. }}

Strange or otherworldly.

Spellbound.

Adjective

(en adjective)

Magical or fairylike.