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Dec 25, 2013
This week's theme
Words to describe people

This week's words
lickspittle
tosspot
milksop
hayseed
gadabout

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A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Garg

milksop

PRONUNCIATION:
(MILK-sop)

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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