milquetoast |
American Heritage Dictionary (2 definitions)
- One who has a meek, timid, unassertive nature.
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An indication of the effect on the English language of popular culture is the adoption of names from the comic strips as English words. Casper Milquetoast, created by Harold Webster in 1924, was a timid and retiring man named for a timid food. The first instance of milquetoast as a common noun is found in the mid-1930s. Milquetoast thus joins the ranks of other such words, including sad sack, from a blundering army private invented by George Baker in 1942, and Wimpy, from J. Wellington Wimpy in the Popeye comic strip, which became a trade name for a hamburger. If we look to a related form of popular culture, the animated cartoon, we must of course acknowledge Mickey Mouse, which has become a slang term for something that is easy, insignificant, small-time, worthless, or petty.
–noun
–Word History
GNU Webster's 1913 (1 definition)
- a timid, unassertive man or boy fearful of confrontation and easily manipulated and dominated.
–noun
WordNet (1 definition)
- A timid man or boy considered childish or unassertive.
–noun
Century Dictionary
Elsewhere on the web
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Real quick, Wolf, you know, some social conservatives are not happy about John McCain's statement on the California gay marriage ruling, because in essence, it came out as just kind of what they call a milquetoast (ph), some sort of just generic statement rather than really taking the issue as one about judges and one about marriage and taking control and being more forceful in that area.
A milquetoast is a weak, ineffectual or bland person.
I've been patiently watching this indicator as it meandered in milquetoast fashion for some time.
For too long, the left has behaved like Casper Milquetoast in response to fascist goat fuckers like Limbaugh, Savage, Coulter, et.al. You might have a point if this was about Mr Schultz insulting his opponents but do you really want to say the opposite of milquetoast is advocating fraud?
Feeling toasty: Kudos (in the piece about the Ghost Riderz scooter gang) for using the word milquetoast in a sentence.
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Pronunciations
/ (mĭlkˈtōstˌ)/
ahd pronounces "milquetoast"
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Etymology
American Heritage Dictionary (1)
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After Caspar Milquetoast, a comic-strip character created by Harold Tucker Webster (1885-1952).
Century Dictionary
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Milquetoast has been looked up 1,116 times, favorited 9 times, listed 118 times, commented on 3 times, and has a Scrabble score of 22.