milquetoast - a podcast by Merriam-Webster

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 8, 2021 is: milquetoast \MILK-tohst\ noun
A milquetoast is a timid, meek, or unassertive person.

// The sales manager is not a milquetoast: when she sees an opportunity to make a lucrative deal, she will seal it.

[See the entry >](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/milquetoast)

Examples:

"I think if you're likable, sometimes you are like milquetoast. You don't necessarily stand for anything. You don't rub people the wrong way because you have strong opinions…." — Katie Couric, quoted on NPR, 26 Oct. 2021

Did you know?

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](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/milk%20toast) is a weak, bland concoction of buttered toast served in a dish of warm milk.

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