milquetoast

1 of 2

noun

milque·​toast ˈmilk-ˌtōst 

: a timid, meek, or unassertive person

milquetoast

2 of 2

adjective

1

of a person : timid, meek, or unassertive

Do we really want a someone who is a milquetoast halfhearted candidate or someone who will defend the Constitution with every fiber of her being?

—Dana B. Orr

2

: lacking in character or vigor : wishy-washy

… after declining multiple opportunities to comment during the reporting of the story, he finally produced a most milquetoast statement Friday.

—Jerry Brewer

Did you know?

Why is it milquetoast, and not milk toast?

Caspar Milquetoast is a comic strip character created in 1924 by cartoonist Harold T. Webster. Beginning a few years after the character's debut, the term milquetoast came to describe a timid or meek person. Caspar's last name is fitting because milk toast is a weak, bland concoction of buttered toast served in a dish of warm milk.

Examples of milquetoast in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Noun

Whereas Melvin was a milquetoast mainstay with two decades of experience as a major-league manager, Vitello arrives as a 47-year-old firebrand who neither played nor coached at any level of professional baseball. —Evan Webeck, Mercury News, 23 Oct. 2025

The Dolphins' milquetoast defense is allowing 33 points a game, and 13 of 15 offensive drives by opponents have resulted in points. —Jim Reineking, USA Today, 18 Sep. 2025

Adjective

Other Party bigwigs expressed disappointment, too, from the progressives Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren to the milquetoast Democratic National Committee leader Ken Martin. —Jon Allsop, New Yorker, 11 Nov. 2025

Instead, audiences got the frustratingly milquetoast sci-fi tale of Jim (Chris Pratt), an engineer who accidentally wakes up nearly a century too early during an interstellar journey to a far-off planet and becomes obsessed with a pretty writer named Aurora (Lawrence), who’s still in hibernation. —Tim Grierson, Vulture, 8 Nov. 2025

Word History

Etymology

Noun

Caspar Milquetoast, comic strip character created by H. T. Webster †1952 American cartoonist

Adjective

from Caspar Milquetoast — more at milquetoast entry 1

First Known Use

Noun

1935, in the meaning defined above

Adjective

1931, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for milquetoast

• diagnosed
• easternmost
• innermost
• lowermost
• milepost
• northernmost
• outermost
• rearmost
• southernmost
• uppermost
• uttermost
• westernmost

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