milquetoast

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milquetoast

1. adjective Extremely weak, timid, or ineffectual. A reference to H. T. Webster's comic strip character Caspar Milquetoast, who exhibited such traits. We're going to be the laughingstock of the world after such a milquetoast response from our government. We can't afford some milquetoast plan that just keeps the status quo—we need something drastic and daring that might really improve our sales. In the play, the hero returns to drive the milquetoast suitor from his home and reclaim his rightful place by his wife's side.

2. noun An extremely weak, timid, or ineffectual man. We need a president who's going to lead the nation with strength and resolve, not some milquetoast who'll just kowtow to every foreign leader who raises his voice. I swear, I don't know why I ever married a milquetoast like you. You can't even defend your own wife when she's been insulted!

milquetoast

(ˈmɪlktost)

n. an ineffectual man; a shy coward; an effeminate male. This little milquetoast goes up to the biker, looks at him sort of sad like, and then karate chops him into a quivering pulp.

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References in periodicals archive ?

Broadway-Willamette Plaza - a true milquetoast solution - should be renamed Ken Kesey Square.

Look for Kesey Square at Center of the Universe

Basketball's cowardice here reminds us of a similarly milquetoast decision by Major League Baseball in 2004.

Fashion statement

Here, as elsewhere, I depict Madison as more or less the bookish, philosophical milquetoast that Wilson makes him.

Jimmy's last stand

THE UNION OF EUROPEAN FOOTBALL ASSOCIATIONS UEFA's milquetoast response to racism at the Euro Cup provided another example of football officialdom's failure to live up its anti-racist rhetoric with meaningful action.

Heroes and villains

Usually I'm cast as a milquetoast. Except in my own plays, where I get to be smart.

Christopher Durang's

In the process, during this interim period, the new executive also has to be deferential to the CEO all while not being seen as a milquetoast. The CEO still calls the shots and is the primary conduit to the board of directors who will be evaluating the No.

Scrap the two-step succession strategy

Summary: The Arab League has shed its milquetoast image in recent months, first approving Western intervention in Libya and, this week, suspending Syria from its ranks.

Economic pressure can make Assad the next to fall

when you don't know what you believe, everything becomes an argument ..." After reading this section I said "Hallelujah!" Is your business milquetoast or does it market an opinion?

Rework

We aren't always great fans of the kind of milquetoast portfolios that are created to engage first ladies on behalf of the nation, but hopefully this fruits-and-vegetables brief will be different.

U.S. editorial excerpts -4-

He called Atleo a milquetoast, a weak and timid leader who accomplished nothing "to build bridges, open communication or lend credence to Native issues."

Stroke, stroke, stroke

Referring to the method style of acting as promoting an American view of identity politics and sense of selfhood, Patton writes, "This milquetoast humanism promotes tolerance, but understands tolerance to be the property of white, Christian males who use it to reestablish their position as the Universal from which are distinguished the particulars who need to be tolerated (Blacks, Jews, eventually women, other ethnic groups, the aged and disabled, and, arguably, gays and lesbians)" (3).

Passing for white

Among the former entries axed: "milquetoast," "Photostat," "riffraff" and WAC, "which is no longer used by the U.S.

Changes Galore in New AP Stylebook

A note on the France-based Archiguide site at http://archiguide.free.fr/AG/sommaires.htm reminds us a) why architectural criticism, mostly beholden to architects and their right not to supply images, can be such milquetoast stuff and b) how the faceless men in wigs never sleep.

Archipomps: not on my watch

Cooney is now infamous for dramatically altering a key report on global warming issued by the Climate Change Science Program, turning the report's dire warnings into milquetoast precautions.

Undermining Science: Suppression and Distortion in the Bush Administration

I fear we've been mocking God for some time now, and not just with our milquetoast "Prayer for Vocations." You know the prayer to which I refer: you can probably recite it in your sleep.