nelly

noun, adj — 5 senses

nelly

noun

UK /nɛli/

Etymology Shortened from Nelly Duff, for puff, i.e. breath of life.

1

Cockney, Slang A person's life.

nelly

adj

Etymology From the woman's name Nelly.

1

Slang Unmanly; effeminate.

From Christopher Street to Castro Street, these men are peddling the same message. I'm butch, a macho man. Well, it ain't necessarily so. In fact, as a general rule of thumb, the butcher the get-up, the nellier the wearer.1979 April 21, Greg Jackson, “He Looks Like Tarzan But He Talks Like Jane”, in Gay Community News, page 17:
Some of the nelliest boys unable to get or keep a job, some of the toughest girls breaking their bodies trying to do men's work.2012, Lee Lynch, The Raid:

nelly

noun

Etymology From the woman's name Nelly.

1

Derogatory, Slang An effeminate homosexual man.

2

UK, Slang A silly person.

3

A giant petrel, Macronectes giganteus and Macronectes halli.

Derived terms: high nelly, high-nelly, nervous-nelly, nervous nelly, nice-nelly, wet nelly
Hyponyms: Antarctic giant petrel, northern giant petrel, southern giant fulmar, southern giant petrel

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — list of authors.