milk toast

¹

noun

1. toast, usually buttered, served in hot milk with sugar or with salt and pepper.

milk-toast

²

[ milk-tohst ]

adjective

1. easily dominated; extremely mild; ineffectual; namby-pamby; wishy-washy.

noun

1. milquetoast.

Word History and Origins

Origin of milk toast¹

An Americanism dating back to 1850–55

Origin of milk toast²

First recorded in 1815–25

Example Sentences

The badge’s requirements included knowing how to prepare a variety of foodstuffs thought to be beneficial for a sick person: gruel, barley water, milk toast, oyster or clam soup, beef tea or chicken jelly, and kumiss, a drink of fresh milk mixed with buttermilk and left to ferment for 36 hours.

From Washington Post

"You say... we don't like what President Obama did. We think President Obama was far too moderate, far too accommodationist with Republicans, especially now in the era of Donald Trump that Democrats view as extreme. We want more of an angry strong voice, and too often we feel Obama was sort of middling and milk toast," he said.

From Fox News

Cereal and milk, toast, bacon, fried eggs—the smells of breakfast seemed to hang over the raft.

From Literature

We do not need to staff the CIA with Mister or Ms milk toast.

From New York Times

I preferred the milk toast: a slab of brioche, crisped just so the edges darken, then soaked with condensed milk until swollen, beaded with sugar and torched.

From New York Times