milquetoast
noun and adjective

a person who is timid or submissive

Oxford Dictionary

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Caspar Milquetoast was a comic strip character created by H. T. Webster for his cartoon series The Timid Soul. Webster described Caspar Milquetoast as "the man who speaks softly and gets hit with a big stick."

The character's name is a deliberate, French-like misspelling of the name of a boring, tasteless food called milk toast. As it's light and easy to digest, it's an appropriate food for someone with a weak or "nervous" stomach.

Because of the popularity of Webster's character, the term milquetoast came into general usage in American English to mean "weak and ineffectual" or "plain and unadventurous."

When the term is used to describe a person, it typically indicates someone of an unusually meek, bland, soft or submissive nature, who is easily overlooked, written off, and who may also appear overly sensitive, timid, indecisive or cowardly.

(source: Wikipedia)

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SYNONYMS

baby, gutless wonder, milksop, mother’s darling, namby pamby, pansy, sissy, softy, wimp, wuss

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SMUGGLE OWAD into a conversation, say something like:

"We don't want MILQUETOAST proposals, let's rock the boat with something really daring."

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Thanks to Florian for reanimating today's word!