a. (int., sb.) [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 sb. (see quot. 1824).
1791. Massachusetts Spy, 12 May, 2/1. He … looked at the broth—and d——d it for wishy washy stuff.
1824. Mactaggart, Gallovid. Encycl., 481. Wishie-washie, small drink; ale without foam; whisky without bells.
1854. R. 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.
1898. A. Balfour, To Arms! vii. 118. Their wishy-washy, watery wine.
2. fig. a. Feeble or poor in constitution, condition or aspect; weakly, sickly, ‘washed-out.’ Now rare or Obs.
1703. Steele, Tender Husb., I. (1705), 12. Pray, Brother, observe his Make, none of your Lath-back’d wishy washy Breed.
1748. Smollett, Rod. Rand., xxiv. A good seaman he is…; none of your guinea pigs,—nor your fresh-water, wishy-washy, fair-weather fowls.
1838. Lady Granville, Lett. (1894), II. 261. I am quite well now, only rather wishy-washy.
1856. Hawthorne, 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!
a. 1693. Urquhart’s Rabelais, III. xxxvi. 298. Pan. Wishy, washy; Trolly, trolly [orig. Tarabin, tarabas!].
1797. G. Colman, Heir at Law, . ii. A lord without money be but a foolish, wishy washy kind of a thing a’ter all.
1801. T. Dibdin, Il Bondocani, III. ii. None of your wishy washy sparks that mince their steps.
1867. Trollope, Chron. Barset, I. vii. 55. A weak, wishy-washy man, who had hardly any mind of his own to speak of.
1865. Miss Braddon, Doctor’s Wife, iii. Isabel painted wishy-washy looking flowers on Bristol-board from Nature.
1893. Nation (N. Y.), 9 Feb., 106/3. An instance of a silly, wishy-washy, inconclusive, and pretentious style of writing.
Hence Wishy-washiness.
1891. Lounsbury, Studies Chaucer, III. vii. 193. He had accordingly every pecuniary if not personal inducement to go on diluting his original to the utmost limit of wishi-washiness.
