| 释义 |
milk-and-water
Milk diluted with water; hence transf. and fig.
†1. The colour of milk and water; a bluish white colour. Also, a kind of cloth of this colour. Obs.
1511Acc. Ld. High Treas. Scot. (1902) IV. 245 For iij elnis Franche claith of the new mylk and wattir, to be him ane coit. 1515–16Ibid. (1903) V. 75, xvj elne of claith callit mylk and watter. 1555in Beck's Draper's Dict. (1886) s.v., xj yards of mylke and watter, 18s. 1562Richmond. Wills (Surtees) 152 To Charles my Sone..one clock [cloak] of colour callid milk and watter. 1571in Wills & Inv. N.C. (Surtees) I. 363, xv yeardes of blewe carsay xvs—j pece of mylk & watter j1 ijs [etc.].
2. Feeble or insipid discourse; mawkish or weakly amiable sentiment.
1819Byron Let. to Murray 1 Feb., The discouragement of the milk and water they have thrown upon the First [Canto]. 1844Thackeray Crit. Rev. Wks. 1886 XXIII. 208 Inspired by that milk-and-water of human kindness. 1867Trollope Chron. Barset II. li. 79 The conversation had had so much of milk-and-water in its composition, that [etc.]
3. attrib. as adj. Like milk diluted with water; hence ‘wishy-washy’, insipid, feeble, mawkish, weakly amiable.
1783Jrnl. Amer. Congr. (1823) IV. 209 Change the milk-and-water style of your last memorial; assume a bolder tone. 1823Byron Juan viii. xc, All their pretty milk-and-water ways. 1848Thackeray Van. Fair viii, My rascals are no milk-and-water rascals. 1870Friswell Mod. Men of Lett. i. 14 A milk-and-water damsel of the real Dickensian ideal.
Comb.1864Kimball Was he successful? iv. 36 A pale, milk-and-water-looking youth.
Hence milk-and-ˈwater v. intr., to feed upon milk and water. Also milk-and-ˈwaterish, -ˈwatery, adjs., milk-and-ˈwateriness.
1807Scott Fam. Lett. Nov. (1894) I. iii. 87 It..would be giving the signal to build some vile milk-and-waterish legendary tale upon so beautiful a subject. 1819Metropolis II. 94 As milk-and-watery as a Roman senator. 1834Westm. Rev. XX. 268 The ancient beauty.., however, opines in the milk-and-wateriness of her benevolence, that ‘an adjustment of the question on this footing would satisfy all reasonable persons’. 1836–9Dickens Sk. Boz, Tuggses at Ramsgate, Five children milk-and-watering in the parlour. 1865― Mut. Fr. iv. iii, This gentleman..is more milk and watery with you than I'll be. |