Word of the Day

: December 8, 2021

milquetoast

noun MILK-tohst

What It Means

A milquetoast is a timid, meek, or unassertive person.

// The sales manager is not a milquetoast: when she sees an opportunity to make a lucrative deal, she will seal it.

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milquetoast in Context

"I think if you're likable, sometimes you are like milquetoast. You don't necessarily stand for anything. You don't rub people the wrong way because you have strong opinions…." — Katie Couric, quoted on NPR, 26 Oct. 2021

Did You Know?

Caspar Milquetoast is a comic strip character created in 1924 by cartoonist Harold T. Webster. Beginning a few years after the character's debut, the term milquetoast came to describe a timid or meek person. Caspar's last name is fitting because milk toast is a weak, bland concoction of buttered toast served in a dish of warm milk.