| 释义 |
wishy-washy, a. (int., n.)|ˈwɪʃɪˌwɒʃɪ|
[Reduplicated formation on washy a. (sense 2); cf. the earlier swish-swash (wishy-washy drink).]
1. Of drink (or liquid food): Weak and insipid; sloppy. Also dial. as n. (see quot. 1824).
1791Massachusetts Spy 12 May 2/1 He..looked at the broth—and d―d it for wishy washy stuff. 1824Mactaggart Gallovid. Encycl. 481 Wishie-washie, small drink; ale with⁓out foam; whisky without bells. 1854R. S. Surtees Handley Cr. xxvii, None of your flagon-of-ale and round-of-beef breakfasts nowadays—slip-slop, wishy-washy, milk-and-water, effeminate stuff. 1898A. Balfour To Arms vii, Their wishy-washy, watery wine.
2. fig.
a. Feeble or poor in constitution, condition, or aspect; weakly, sickly, ‘washed-out’. Now rare or Obs.
1703Steele Tender Husb. i. (1705) 12 Pray, Brother, observe his Make, none of your Lath-back'd wishy washy Breed. 1748Smollett Rod. Rand. xxiv, A good seaman he is..; none of your guinea pigs,—nor your fresh-water, wishy-washy, fair-weather fowls. 1838Lady Granville Lett. (1894) II. 261, I am quite well now, only rather wishy-washy. 1856Hawthorne Engl. Note-bks. (1870) II. 163 A wishy-washy woman's face.
b. Feeble or poor in quality or character; trifling, unsubstantial, trashy, ‘milk-and-watery’. † Also rarely as int. = pish! tush!
a1693Urquhart's Rabelais iii. xxxvi. 298 Pan. Wishy, washy; Trolly, trolly [orig. Tarabin, tarabas!]. 1797G. Colman Heir at Law ii. ii, A lord without money be but a foolish, wishy washy kind of a thing a'ter all. 1801T. Dibdin Il Bondocani iii. ii, None of your wishy washy sparks that mince their steps. 1867Trollope Chron. Barset I. vii. 55 A weak, wishy-washy man, who had hardly any mind of his own to speak of. 1865M. E. Braddon Doctor's Wife iii, Isabel painted wishy-washy looking flowers on Bristol-board from Nature. 1893Nation (N.Y.) 9 Feb. 106/3 A silly, wishy-washy, inconclusive..style of writing.
Hence ˈwishy-ˌwashiness.
1891T. R. Lounsbury Studies Chaucer III. vii. 193 He had..every..personal inducement to go on diluting his original to the utmost limit of wishi-washiness. |