DictionaryAI

childish

adjective
CHYL-dish/ˈt͡ʃaɪldɪʃ/

2 meanings of childish

Practice

  1. 1
    immatureadjective
    Immature in the way someone thinks or behaves.

    Their childish argument over a parking space went on for an hour.

    Critics called the senator's insults childish and beneath the office.

    Similarimmature, juvenile, infantile, puerile, babyish

    Oppositemature, adult, grown-up

  2. 2
    typical of kidsadjective
    Suitable for a child, or of the kind expected of a child.

    The birthday card was signed in childish handwriting and purple crayon.

    The museum guide thought the cartoon map was a little childish for adult visitors.

    Similarchildlike, babyish, juvenile

    Oppositeadult, grown-up

    Note

    Older writing uses the word without any sting, to mean simply "of a child": Susan Ferrier writes of a long childish illness in The Inheritance (1824), and David Copperfield remembers his own childish feet in the streets of Southwark. Beside the "immature" meaning it can now sound like criticism, so when you mean only "belonging to a child," let the context say so.

Practice

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Origin

From Middle English childisch, from Old English ċildisċ; it can be read as child + -ish.