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wish-wash

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wish-wash

noun wish-washes

  1. archaic, countable, uncountable Any weak, thin drink. Between the result of the above, and the ordinary wish-wash served as coffee, the difference is too great to be expressed.
  2. countable, uncountable Talk, music, or art, or ideas that lack any value, substance, originality, or meaning; dreck. It is a thing that fails altogether to interest; a wish-wash that only serves to pass the time.
  3. countable, uncountable The sound of liquid sloshing Martha steadily turned and turned, and the cream within the snowy white sycamore box went 'wish-wash, wish-wash, wish-wash, playing, after all, a very delicious tune in the young farmer's ears, for it suggested yellow butter, and yellow butter suggested sovereigns, and sovereigns suggested home comf

adjective more wish-wash · most wish-wash

  1. Vapid; lackluster; mediocre Of course we fear to address ourselves to those gentlemen whose reading is limited to the daily newspaper and novels of the wish-wash order.
  2. Unfocussed, meandering or impulsive While you are sitting by the side of the placid Thames, under shades of your own planting, planning the operations of a next winter's campaign, we are in the wish-wash way at Margate, amidst deep caverns, high cliffs, and expanded waters, enjoying the less calm, but more sublime objects of Nature.

verb wish-washes · wish-washing · wish-washed

  1. To slosh around. And that night, with the stars jumping and the air lating cold (for we were up in the 40's), and the John wish-washing through the seas at three leagues the hour, MacMuir told me the story of Mungo Maxwell.
  2. To behave in a wishy-washy manner, to vacillate Hain't been a fair election in 15 years to my knowing, and I am confident about what I am talking about, but I am getting sick and tired of this wish-washing about eating tickets; have known them to do this after election.

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MLA

"wish-wash." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/wish-wash. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

wish-wash. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/wish-wash

Chicago

"wish-wash." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/wish-wash.

BibTeX
@misc{wish_wash_2026,
  title = {wish-wash},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/wish-wash},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}