milk-and-water

English

Noun

milk-and-water (uncountable)

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

Adjective

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

• milk-and-wateriness
• milk-and-watery