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Dec 25, 2013
This week's themeWords to describe people This week's words lickspittle tosspot milksop hayseed gadabout AWAD Premium An ad-free, paid edition of AWAD. Subscribe yourself or send a gift subscription. A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Gargmilksop
PRONUNCIATION:
MEANING:
noun: One who is timid or indecisive.
ETYMOLOGY:
A milksop is, literally, a piece of bread soaked in milk, a diet
considered suitable for babies and the sick. A synonym of this term is
milquetoast. Earliest
documented use: 1390.
USAGE:
"This is for the milksop who does not want a mouse in the house but is
too timid or pious to do anything about it." Nicholas Lezard; Down and Out; New Statesman (London, UK); Mar 27, 2013. See more usage examples of milksop in Vocabulary.com's dictionary. A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
The true test of a civilization is, not the census, nor the size of the cities, nor the crops -- no, but the kind of man the country turns out. -Ralph Waldo Emerson, essayist (1803-1882)
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