fanny merchant

fanny merchant (plural fanny merchants)

1. (UK, slang, derogatory, vulgar) An effeminate and ineffectual man.
   • 2001, Val G. Lee, The Comedienne, page 65:

     To cut a long story short, Howard looked like an intrepid explorer with an all-year tan but in actual fact he was just a chap who stayed at home and wore pan-stick: in other words, a fanny merchant.

   • 2012, Paul Larkin, Poles 'N' Goals and Hesselink, page 67:

     He was a “cultured left back” (translation-he could play but was a bit of a fanny merchant) and he could hit a shot.

   • 2016, Jason McAteer, Blood, Sweat and McAteer: A Footballer's Story:

     Right now he's calling me a 'fanny merchant' as he pins me to the wall in the Dublin Airport Hotel and lets me know exactly what he thinks of the Liverpool way just hours after a game at Lansdowne Road.

• Tony Thorne (2014) “fanny merchant”, in Dictionary of Contemporary Slang, 4th edition, London,  […]: Bloomsbury