insipid
/ɪnˈsɪpɪd
/adjective
1Lacking flavour; weak or tasteless: mugs of insipid coffee...
- We settled for lager - and got the most insipid, tasteless liquid I've swallowed in a long time.
- There were indeed big chunks of chocolate, but the ice-cream itself was insipid and flavourless.
- Before they are thoroughly matured, moreover, they are apt to be insipid in flavour, and to cause dyspepsia and other forms of intestinal disturbance.
Synonyms
tasteless, flavourless, unflavoured, savourless, bland, weak, thin, watery, watered-down, unappetizing, unpalatable
informal wishy-washy
Scottish, dated wersh
1.1Lacking vigour or interest: many artists continued to churn out insipid, shallow works...
- I'm not interested in stupid, insipid men who flower me with ridiculous comments in the hope that I'll fall madly in love with them.
- By the way, incongruity is the middle name of this insipid film with characters too many and too sketchy and actors short of work or talent, or both.
- But most agreed that many of the items were neither insipid nor shallow.
Synonyms
uninteresting, boring, vapid, dull, spiritless, zestless, bloodless, lifeless, characterless, lacking personality, lacking charisma, anaemic, wishy-washy, pathetic;
ordinary, commonplace, middle-of-the-road, run-of-the mill, not amounting to much
unimaginative, uninspired, uninspiring, characterless, flat, bland, vapid, uninteresting, unexciting, lacklustre, lustreless, dull, prosaic, boring, monotonous, tedious, wearisome, dry, dry as dust, jejune, humdrum, run-of-the-mill, commonplace, pedestrian, trite, banal, tired, hackneyed, stale, lame, tame, poor, inadequate, half-hearted, bloodless, sterile, anaemic, barren
informal hacky
British informal common or garden
Derivatives
insipidity
/ noun ...- The dryness and insipidity of their surroundings has taught them the value of colors which they reflect in their costumes, in their paintings, in their handicrafts and even in their thoughts.
- Never mind contemporary country music, with its upbeat insipidity, which is to the genre at its best as a giant shopping complex is to the wild terrain eradicated to build it.
- Yet when does this politeness, this so-called consideration become mere insipidity?
insipidly
/ adverb ...- As Charlotte grows bored of her somewhat vacuous husband and his insipidly shallow colleagues, she befriends Bob and the two of them embark upon one of the most realistically restrained romances in movie history.
- ‘Come in,’ I called insipidly, as usual engrossed in a book.
- He moves with a real, not acted, awkwardness; gazes insipidly out of weirdly hooded eyes; and speaks in choppy phrases.
insipidness
/ noun ...- So as frivolous as the story may be I think it's worth paying attention to as a sort of object lesson in the mainstream press's general insipidness and openness to manipulation.
- Gone was the fighting spirit and fierce determination of the drawn game, and in its place an insipidness and almost a willingness to accept defeat that should have no place in a county final.
- Gone was the insipidness and lethargy we had witnessed.
Origin
Early 17th century: from French insipide or late Latin insipidus, from in- 'not' + sapidus (see sapid).
The word insipid goes back to late Latin insipidus, from in- ‘not’ and sapidus, from sapere ‘to taste’.