yes butn.adj.

1870 J. W. Cudworth Quakerism & Church 49 If I had omitted any reference..I should have been met by continual ‘Yes, buts’, and have had scraps of texts quoted against me.

1941 Washington Post 31 May 6/6 Mass production of inspired objections to this, and ‘yes, buts’ to that, serves no useful purpose.

1994 N.Y. Times 20 July 1/6 Delegates..suggested that the Serbs had come up with a ‘yes, but...’ or a ‘yes, and...’ in response to a plan that they do not much like, but which is better than the grim alternative.

2011 J. Dexter et al. Introd. to Coaching vii. 126 Planning may include knowing how to confront self-defeating behaviours and patterns, procrastination, hurdles, and ‘yes buts’.

1869 Amer. Phrenol. Jrnl. Feb. 72/1 (heading) The yes-but grumblers... The discontent of many of the inhabitants is profound.]

1944 School Rev. 52 44/1 The heading of balanced criticisms does not include the ‘yes-but’ response that many persons habitually substitute for the answer ‘No’.

1983 Asian Surv. 23 193 The longer the election was postponed, however, the more readily the opposition could capitalize on the classic ‘yes...but’ argument.

1994 Sculpture July 22/2 The exhibition itself could even be called a cast or husk, a funhouse parody, an obverse, inverse or ‘yes, but’ response to artistic, political and social concerns.

2006 K. Pollitt Virginity or Death! 185 It is a mistake to give the right a monopoly on values by agreeing with them in a half-baked, yes-but, wishy-washy way.