milk-and-water

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English

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Noun

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milk-and-water (uncountable)

  1. (obsolete) A light bluish colour. [16th c.]
  2. Something insipid or mawkish. [from 18th c.]

Adjective

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

  1. Insipid, wishy-washy, weak. [from 18th c.]
    • 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

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