wishy-washy
weak, ineffective
TRANSLATION
wishy-washy = unkonkret, unentschlossen, opportunistisch, lasch, labberig, verwaschen, wetterwendisch --- GOOGLE INDEX wishy-washy: approximately 100,000 hits
STATISTICS
IN THE PRESS
"We don't tolerate a lack of discipline. We let the children know the rules very clearly. They don't want WISHY-WASHY rules, they want to know how far they can go before they get into trouble."
- head teacher at a high school in Chesterfield, Derbyshire
- head teacher at a high school in Chesterfield, Derbyshire
Did you
know?
wishy-washy
adjective
- lacking in strength of character or purpose; ineffective
- thin and watery, as tea or soup; insipid
(The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
---
Wishy-washy describes something or someone that lacks real substance, original ideas or a set of principles.
The business manager who changes his views all the time in order to avoid confronting others in the organisation could be called wishy-washy.
It can also refer to something that is lifeless, dull or boring. A restaurant with an unexciting menu might be referred to as wishy-washy.
Linguists call words like wishy-washy "reduplicates or ricochets" (a ricochet is something that bounces back from a surface). These words repeat themselves by changing one consonant or vowel to make another word that sounds like the first word.
Here are a few additional examples:
ticky-tacky - made of low quality material
flim-flam - talk that is intended to confuse or deceive
pitter-patter - a series of light tapping sounds
razzle-dazzle - dazzling excitement or a showy display
---
SYNONYMS
banal, bland, characterless, cowardly, dull, enervated, feeble, flat, flavourless, indecisive, ineffective, ineffectual, insipid, irresolute, jejune, languid, listless, mediocre, namby-pamby, sapless, spiritless, tasteless, thin, vacillating, vapid, watered-down, watery, wavering, weak, weak-kneed
(Roget's New Millennium™ Thesaurus)
---
SMUGGLE OWAD INTO A CONVERSATION TODAY
say something like:
"Bob is fantastic on the telephone, but his presentations are rather WISHY-WASHY – let’s send him on a course."
---
QUICK, BEFORE YOU GO, TEST YOUR MEMORY !!
Do you remember yesterday's OWAD?
What's the missing phrase?
kurz zusammen gefasst = IN A N _ _ _ _ _ _ _
"IN A N _ _ _ _ _ _ _ , if we don’t increase profits by 30% by year end, we’ll be out of business."
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
IN A N U _ _ _ _ _ _
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
IN A N U T _ _ _ _ _
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
IN A N U T S _ _ _ _
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
IN A N U T S H _ _ _
=
=
=
=
=
=
=
=
=
=
=
=
=
=
=
=
IN A N U T S H E L L
____________________
adjective
- lacking in strength of character or purpose; ineffective
- thin and watery, as tea or soup; insipid
(The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
---
Wishy-washy describes something or someone that lacks real substance, original ideas or a set of principles.
The business manager who changes his views all the time in order to avoid confronting others in the organisation could be called wishy-washy.
It can also refer to something that is lifeless, dull or boring. A restaurant with an unexciting menu might be referred to as wishy-washy.
Linguists call words like wishy-washy "reduplicates or ricochets" (a ricochet is something that bounces back from a surface). These words repeat themselves by changing one consonant or vowel to make another word that sounds like the first word.
Here are a few additional examples:
ticky-tacky - made of low quality material
flim-flam - talk that is intended to confuse or deceive
pitter-patter - a series of light tapping sounds
razzle-dazzle - dazzling excitement or a showy display
---
SYNONYMS
banal, bland, characterless, cowardly, dull, enervated, feeble, flat, flavourless, indecisive, ineffective, ineffectual, insipid, irresolute, jejune, languid, listless, mediocre, namby-pamby, sapless, spiritless, tasteless, thin, vacillating, vapid, watered-down, watery, wavering, weak, weak-kneed
(Roget's New Millennium™ Thesaurus)
---
SMUGGLE OWAD INTO A CONVERSATION TODAY
say something like:
"Bob is fantastic on the telephone, but his presentations are rather WISHY-WASHY – let’s send him on a course."
---
QUICK, BEFORE YOU GO, TEST YOUR MEMORY !!
Do you remember yesterday's OWAD?
What's the missing phrase?
kurz zusammen gefasst = IN A N _ _ _ _ _ _ _
"IN A N _ _ _ _ _ _ _ , if we don’t increase profits by 30% by year end, we’ll be out of business."
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
IN A N U _ _ _ _ _ _
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
IN A N U T _ _ _ _ _
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
IN A N U T S _ _ _ _
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
IN A N U T S H _ _ _
=
=
=
=
=
=
=
=
=
=
=
=
=
=
=
=
IN A N U T S H E L L
____________________
