milk-and-water

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English

Noun

milk-and-water (uncountable)

  1. (obsolete) A light bluish colour.
  2. Something insipid or mawkish.

Adjective

milk-and-water (comparative more milk-and-water, superlative most milk-and-water)

  1. Insipid, wishy-washy, weak.
    • 1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, Vanity Fair , London: Bradbury and Evans , published 1848, →OCLC:
      [] she was still, as heretofore, a namby-pamby milk-and-water affected creature []
    • 1977, John Le Carré, The Honourable Schoolboy, Folio Society, published 2010, page 166:
      He gave other equally milk-and-water examples and everyone grew sleepy, waiting for the last lap: ‘Our policy has been exactly the same each time.’

Derived terms