One weak and puerile (or puellile; or anile) articles does a journal more harm than two good articles can neutralize.

[The tale] would be too puellile—may we coin a word?—for strictures, had not the writer challenged them by her introduction.

Andrew Carnegie has found “the prettiest girl in the world” in Pittsburgh. Never having sojourned in North Carolina, Uncle Andy has no conception of what puellile loveliness can be.

And little Audrey, too! What a rascal she is! Why, when she looked at her date for the prom, little Audrey just laughed and laughed … / All this, we admit, is rather puellile—(hooray, we’ve coined a word!) … And so we’ll become puerile at once—and give you the willies!

The dialogue with Ann-Margret on screen is puerile (or is it puellile?) and insulting to the audience.

We cannot credit the argument, which would require the trier to assume that the inscription represented a serious invitation and not simply puellile exhibitionism and, further, that the invitation was extended to any who might apply […]

Serious acceptance of scepticism must be reserved for those who are puerile (or, to coin a feminist expression, puellile) and unworldly to the point of disability.

The Three Bears are pretty boring but the Bash Street Kids’ episodes combine mayhem and sheer lack of subtlety in nicely judged proportions. The humour is thoroughly puerile or, in the case of Minnie the Minx, puellile (and if such a word doesn’t exist, it does now).

“If we can put down boys by calling their behaviour puerile,” speculated Maria, “tell me why in all fairness why the reprehensible behaviour of ladettes and girlies shouldn’t be described as puellile?”

MORE tangled roots: Linda Grant previously defended hairdressing against the charge that it is a “puerile, superficial art”. But John Ponsonby says this description is “a curious thing to write, as few think of hairdressing as a boyish activity. Yet puerile is derived from puer, Latin for ‘boy’.” Given that it was gender stereotyping that got our styling tongs warmed up in the first place, Feedback imagines that hairdressing might be more pedantically disparaged as puellile.

We now arrive at the part that everybody’s been waiting for: the theory is done, the spiritual preparation is underway, and the implements have been blessed; now how do we start casting spells? / Well, that’s the problem. We don’t cast spells, at least not on my watch. The word sounds so childish and so puellile that it doesn’t deserve to be used in connection with the processes of Catholic magic, no matter how simple.

Puellile

Meaning

Adj