milksop

• “Detmar is the sort of chap who would once have been described as a milksop; when Issie met him in 1988 he was 25, but so close to his mother he used to shop for her sanitary towels.”

  The Guardian: Blow by Blow: The Story of Isabella Blow by Detmar Blow

• “But even the most foolish swaggerer of them could not call milksop a man who could outride, outleap, outfence, outhunt him; who could drive the four horses of his coach to London and back at such a pace and in such a manner as made purple-faced old stage-coach drivers shake their heads with glee, and who, in a wrestling-match, could break a man's back at a throw if he chose to be unmerciful.”

  His Grace of Osmonde Being the Portions of That Nobleman's Life Omitted in the Relation of His Lady's Story Presented to the World of Fashion under the Title of A Lady of Quality

• “Suckling is a nickname applied to a helpless person; cf. Littlechild and "milksop," which still exists, though rare, in the forms Milsopp and Mellsop.”

  The Romance of Names

• “Riley called him "milksop," and "sap-head"; words which seemed to the dull intellect of King Pewee exceedingly witty.”

  The Hoosier School-boy

• “My young companions, who, as I have observed, had only preceded me six months in the service, were already grown old in depravity; they laughed at my squeamishness, called me, "milksop" and”

  Frank Mildmay The Naval Officer

• “My young companions, who, as I have observed, had only preceded me six months in the service, were already grown old in depravity; they laughed at my squeamishness, called me "milksop" and "boarding-school miss," and soon made me as bad as themselves.”

  Frank Mildmay Or, The Naval Officer

• “And Giles had always thought it rather far-fetched that a milksop like Desmond would have committed cold-blooded murder.”

  Simon & Schuster: How to Woo a Reluctant Lady

• “It's clear from the outset that Myra is quite mad, and even when the source of her madness is revealed, it doesn't make one feel any more sympathy for her, or for her milksop of a husband.”

  The Wall Street Journal: Creep Show

• “One way of ensuring that didn't happen was to put God – not some milksop supreme being but a proper, stormy God – back into buildings.”

  The Guardian: British architecture: Victorian and Edwardian

• “Why then is the News a milksop and apologist for the New York City Police Department?”

  The Huffington Post: Len Levitt: The Daily News and the NYPD: Blinded by Love

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