like a behenji
- idiom
- Slur
- Even at the party, she behaved like a behenji and avoided dancing.
Examples
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She dressed like a behenji for the wedding.
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He teased his sister for acting like a behenji in front of their relatives.
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Whenever my cousin visits, she tells me I'm dressing like a behenji.
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Why are you acting like a behenji at the party?
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She always acts like a behenji, keeping her opinions to herself during family gatherings.
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He avoided wearing trendy clothes and chose to dress like a behenji instead.
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At the celebration, she insisted on speaking like a behenji, favoring traditional customs over modern ones.
Synonyms
1
9.9
In an old-fashioned way like people spoke or wrote long ago
Antonyms
How Traditional
365
4.7
- Slur
979
1.5
∞
4.6
287
2.8
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning follows directly from the composition 'like' + 'a' + 'behenji' — i.e. 'in the manner of a (socially) old-fashioned woman' — so a learner who knows the constituent meanings can derive the MWE. Although 'behenji' is regionally marked and culturally loaded, that lexical content is given here, and the English simile pattern 'like a X' is cross-linguistically transparent, making the phrase predictable.
Etymology
Like a behenji may come from the Hindi word behen meaning 'sister' plus the polite ending -ji. It was used for modest, traditional women, so saying someone acts like a behenji means 'conservative' or 'old-fashioned'.