wishy-washy, a. (int., n.)
(ˈwɪʃɪˌwɒʃɪ)
[Reduplicated formation on washy a. (sense 2); cf. the earlier swish-swash (wishy-washy drink).]
1. Of drink (or liquid food): Weak and insipid; sloppy. Also dial. as n. (see quot. 1824).
| 1791 Massachusetts Spy 12 May 2/1 He..looked at the broth—and d―d it for wishy washy stuff. 1824 Mactaggart Gallovid. Encycl. 481 Wishie-washie, small drink; ale with⁓out foam; whisky without bells. 1854 R. S. Surtees Handley Cr. xxvii, None of your flagon-of-ale and round-of-beef breakfasts nowadays—slip-slop, wishy-washy, milk-and-water, effeminate stuff. 1898 A. Balfour To Arms vii, Their wishy-washy, watery wine. |
2. fig. a. Feeble or poor in constitution, condition, or aspect; weakly, sickly, ‘washed-out’. Now rare or Obs.
| 1703 Steele Tender Husb. i. (1705) 12 Pray, Brother, observe his Make, none of your Lath-back'd wishy washy Breed. 1748 Smollett Rod. Rand. xxiv, A good seaman he is..; none of your guinea pigs,—nor your fresh-water, wishy-washy, fair-weather fowls. 1838 Lady Granville Lett. (1894) II. 261, I am quite well now, only rather wishy-washy. 1856 Hawthorne Engl. Note-bks. (1870) II. 163 A wishy-washy woman's face. |
b. Feeble or poor in quality or character; trifling, unsubstantial, trashy, ‘milk-and-watery’. † Also rarely as int. = pish! tush!
| a 1693 Urquhart's Rabelais iii. xxxvi. 298 Pan. Wishy, washy; Trolly, trolly [orig. Tarabin, tarabas!]. 1797 G. Colman Heir at Law ii. ii, A lord without money be but a foolish, wishy washy kind of a thing a'ter all. 1801 T. Dibdin Il Bondocani iii. ii, None of your wishy washy sparks that mince their steps. 1867 Trollope Chron. Barset I. vii. 55 A weak, wishy-washy man, who had hardly any mind of his own to speak of. 1865 M. E. Braddon Doctor's Wife iii, Isabel painted wishy-washy looking flowers on Bristol-board from Nature. 1893 Nation (N.Y.) 9 Feb. 106/3 A silly, wishy-washy, inconclusive..style of writing. |
Hence ˈwishy-ˌwashiness.
| 1891 T. R. Lounsbury Studies Chaucer III. vii. 193 He had..every..personal inducement to go on diluting his original to the utmost limit of wishi-washiness. |