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wishy-washy

[wish-ee-wosh-ee, -waw-shee]
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adjective
  1. lacking in decisiveness; without strength or character; irresolute.
  2. washy or watery, as a liquid; thin and weak.
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Origin of wishy-washy

First recorded in 1685–95; gradational compound based on washy
Related formswish·y-wash·i·ly, adverbwish·y-wash·i·ness, noun
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Related Words

indecisive, banal, cowardly, enervated, feeble, flat, flavorless, ineffective, ineffectual, insipid, irresolute, jejune, languid, listless, mediocre, namby-pamby, spiritless, tasteless, thin, vacillating

Examples from the Web for wishy-washy

Contemporary Examples

Historical Examples

  • You're not the kind of blonde who'll get wishy-washy or fat.

    Gigolo

    Edna Ferber

  • I always held you as a wishy-washy bourgeois and now you go and pull this thing off.

    Moral

    Ludwig Thoma

  • You will find nothing negative or wishy-washy in the Great Book.

    The Victorious Attitude

    Orison Swett Marden

  • He is like an over-shot mill, one everlastin' wishy-washy stream.'

    The Attache

    Thomas Chandler Haliburton

  • Modern paper-hangings are too superficial and wishy-washy for the purpose.

British Dictionary definitions for wishy-washy

wishy-washy

adjective informal
  1. lacking in substance, force, colour, etc
  2. watery; thin
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Derived Formswishy-washily, adverbwishy-washiness, noun
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for wishy-washy

adj.

1690s, "feeble or poor in quality," reduplication of washy "thin, watery" (see wash (n.)). Meaning "vacillating" first recorded 1873.

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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper