milquetoast

American  

[milk-tohst] / ˈmɪlkˌtoʊst /

noun

(sometimes initial capital letter)

1. a very timid, unassertive, spineless person, especially one who is easily dominated or intimidated.

   a milquetoast who's afraid to ask for a raise.

---

milquetoast British  

/ ˈmɪlkˌtəʊst /

noun

1. a meek, submissive, or timid person

---

Etymology

Origin of milquetoast

1935–40, after Caspar Milquetoast, a character in The Timid Soul, comic strip by H. T. Webster (1885–1952), American cartoonist

Example Sentences

Being a moderate doesn’t mean being milquetoast.

From The Wall Street Journal

But whipping the votes for a nominee as milquetoast as Mangi, a BigLaw partner who’d practiced at the same New York City firm for nearly 25 years, should not have been especially difficult.

From Slate

And Tracy Brown praises “Andor’s” Kyle Soller: “It’s a credit to Soller’s performance that I could also have so much empathy for such an obsessive and off-putting milquetoast.”

From Los Angeles Times

It’s a credit to Soller’s performance that I could also have so much empathy for such an obsessive and off-putting milquetoast.”

From Los Angeles Times

The film around her is itself built on a fault line of contradictions — it’s at once tepid and sledgehammer-insistent, a slab of decadent milquetoast.

From Los Angeles Times

Related Words

• milksop
• mollycoddle
• pushover