ˈmilksop
[f. milk n.1 + sop n.]
† 1. A piece of bread soaked in milk. Obs. rare.
| c 1420 Liber Cocorum (1862) 53 Melle white brede in dysshes aboute, Powre in wellyd mylke, with outen doute, Þat called is mylke soppys in serves For Satyrday at nyȝt. |
† b. fig. in pl. ‘Soft sayings’. Obs.
| 1577 Hanmer Anc. Eccl. Hist. 71 Lingering in their milksoppes and smoothe Exhortacions. |
† c. milksop dishes, dishes made of ‘milkmeats’.
| 1628 Earle Microcosm. (Arb.) 47 Quaking Tarts and quiuering Custards, and such milke sop Dishes. |
2. † a. An infant not advanced beyond a milk diet. Obs. rare.
| c 1460 Towneley Myst. xii. 469 Secundus pastor. hayll, lytyll tyn mop..hayll lytyll mylk sop! hayll, dauid sede! |
b. fig. An effeminate spiritless man or youth; one wanting in courage or manliness.
| [1246–56 in 35th Rep. Dep. Kpr. Rec. (1874) App. 17 A villein called Robert Milcsop.] c 1386 Chaucer Monk's Prol. 22 Allas she seith that euere þat I was shape To wedden a Milksope or a coward ape. 1568 Grafton Chron. II. 847 The Erle of Richmond Capitayne of thys rebellion, he is a Welshe milksop. a 1619 Fletcher, etc. Knt. Malta ii. i, Thou milksop,..canst thou feare to see A few light hurts, that blush they are no bigger? 1749 Fielding Tom Jones xi. vii, I ought to be d—n'd for having spoiled one of the prettiest fellows in the world, by making a milk-sop of him. 1876 L. Stephen Eng. Th. in 18th C. II. 377 Fielding has a contempt for Richardson as a milksop. |
c. attrib. and Comb.
| 1549 Chaloner Erasm. on Folly P ij, Farre more milke⁓soplyke and womannishe to cast foorth teares. 1750 Student I. 141 The milksop looks and mincing steps of the pretty gentlemen. a 1839 Praed Poems (1864) II. 97 Like a fool Ripe from a milksop boarding-school. |
Hence ˈmilksoppishness, ˈmilksopism, the characteristics of a milksop. ˈmilksopping a., imbued with ‘milksopism’. ˈmilksoppy a. = milksopping.
| 1832 J. Wilson in Blackw. Mag. XXXII. 392 This new dandyfied era of milksoppism. 1888 Stevenson Black Arrow i. ii, Y'are a milk-sopping baby, so to harp on women. 1871 T. A. Trollope Durnton Abbey II. viii. 126, ‘I think I won't take any brandy this morning’, said Reginald, blushing painfully at the consciousness of his milk⁓soppishness in this respect. 1886 G. Allen Maimie's Sake xi, About eighty-seven per cent. of male humanity belongs absolutely to the milksoppy section. |