milk-and-water
Milk diluted with water; hence transf. and fig.
† 1. The colour of milk and water; a bluish white colour. Also, a kind of cloth of this colour. Obs.
| 1511 Acc. Ld. High Treas. Scot. (1902) IV. 245 For iij elnis Franche claith of the new mylk and wattir, to be him ane coit. 1515–16 Ibid. (1903) V. 75, xvj elne of claith callit mylk and watter. 1555 in Beck's Draper's Dict. (1886) s.v., xj yards of mylke and watter, 18s. 1562 Richmond. Wills (Surtees) 152 To Charles my Sone..one clock [cloak] of colour callid milk and watter. 1571 in Wills & Inv. N.C. (Surtees) I. 363, xv yeardes of blewe carsay xvs—j pece of mylk & watter j1 ijs [etc.]. |
2. Feeble or insipid discourse; mawkish or weakly amiable sentiment.
| 1819 Byron Let. to Murray 1 Feb., The discouragement of the milk and water they have thrown upon the First [Canto]. 1844 Thackeray Crit. Rev. Wks. 1886 XXIII. 208 Inspired by that milk-and-water of human kindness. 1867 Trollope Chron. Barset II. li. 79 The conversation had had so much of milk-and-water in its composition, that [etc.] |
3. attrib. as adj. Like milk diluted with water; hence ‘wishy-washy’, insipid, feeble, mawkish, weakly amiable.
| 1783 Jrnl. Amer. Congr. (1823) IV. 209 Change the milk-and-water style of your last memorial; assume a bolder tone. 1823 Byron Juan viii. xc, All their pretty milk-and-water ways. 1848 Thackeray Van. Fair viii, My rascals are no milk-and-water rascals. 1870 Friswell Mod. Men of Lett. i. 14 A milk-and-water damsel of the real Dickensian ideal. |
| Comb. 1864 Kimball Was he successful? iv. 36 A pale, milk-and-water-looking youth. |
Hence
milk-and-ˈwater v. intr., to feed upon milk and water. Also
milk-and-ˈwaterish,
-ˈwatery,
adjs.,
milk-and-ˈwateriness.
| 1807 Scott Fam. Lett. Nov. (1894) I. iii. 87 It..would be giving the signal to build some vile milk-and-waterish legendary tale upon so beautiful a subject. 1819 Metropolis II. 94 As milk-and-watery as a Roman senator. 1834 Westm. Rev. XX. 268 The ancient beauty.., however, opines in the milk-and-wateriness of her benevolence, that ‘an adjustment of the question on this footing would satisfy all reasonable persons’. 1836–9 Dickens Sk. Boz, Tuggses at Ramsgate, Five children milk-and-watering in the parlour. 1865 ― Mut. Fr. iv. iii, This gentleman..is more milk and watery with you than I'll be. |