Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Irresolute or indecisive.
- adjective Lacking in purpose; weak or ineffective.
- adjective Thin and watery, as tea or soup.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective Thin and pale; weak; without strength or substance; -- originally said of liquids. Fig., weak-minded; spiritless.
- noun A weak or thin drink or liquor; wish-wash.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective
Wavering ; lacking incommitment ,certainty , orsupport ;namby-pamby . - adjective
Thin orwatery .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective weak in willpower, courage or vitality
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
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Examples
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People are getting very fed up with these wishy-washy politicians.
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Nothing like the wishy-washy leftist who says, "Personally, I would never have an abortion, BUT ..."
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For the most part, when it's good, it's really good, but it isn't consistently good, hence I'm still kind of wishy-washy about it.
Stargate SG-1 Watchathon - 'Children of the Gods, Pt. 1' 2009
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Nice going Al, it's about time someone shut the little wishy-washy twerp up
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The only reason the GOP ran into problems is that we elected waaay too many moderates like Rudy Guiliani (no one likes wishy-washy politicians.)
Tom McIntyre Explains His Picks for our 2009 Hunting and Fishing Heroes and Villians Face-Off 2009
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I don't appreciate it when people duck important issues by being wishy-washy, so let me say upfront that I lean toward the belief that hell is a real place for those that reject Jesus.
Carl Medearis: Why Are We So Angry About Hell? Carl Medearis 2011
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Me-thinks there is a lot of wishy-washy “statistics” at play.
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Taking four months to make a wishy-washy decision will haunt him.
Obama informs top diplomatic, military officials of Afghan decision 2009
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I don't appreciate it when people duck important issues by being wishy-washy, so let me say upfront that I lean toward the belief that hell is a real place for those that reject Jesus.
Carl Medearis: Why Are We So Angry About Hell? Carl Medearis 2011
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Them fighting words McCain ... the AARP better quit being so wishy-washy with their politics and state yes/no to support the public option now that the big$ lobbies are airing fear-mongering ads to target 14 Senators
abraxaszugzwang commented on the word wishy-washy
just taught this to my students today. they got a good chuckle out of it.
February 28, 2007
sonofgroucho commented on the word wishy-washy
I'm sure I came across this one in the Charlie Brown (Peanuts) cartoons.
July 2, 2007
slumry commented on the word wishy-washy
I had imagined this to be an Americanism, but I was wrong. The oldest sense (1693) referred to watery. "Newfangled" sense of vacillating evidently was recorded in 1873. It was part of my parent's vocabulary.
July 2, 2007
whichbe commented on the word wishy-washy
The condition of a filthy person when self-conscious.
October 10, 2008