small-time, milquetoast, timid, sad sack, Popeye, Mickey Mouse, blundering,

Robert Reich

Your Iowa Caucus reminder that progressives must focus our fight against candidates backed by the Wall Street-corporate wing of the party. Infighting will hurt both Sanders and Warren — and hand the nomination to a milquetoast moderate like Biden or Buttigieg.

If they win, we lose.

The Milquetoast Radicals

'The Graves Are Walking'

By JOHN KELLY
Reviewed by ISAAC CHOTINER

John Kelly's history emphasizes the British blundering, prejudice and hostility behind the Irish potato famine.

Chinese Firm Is Making Deals Worldwide, but Who Owns It?

By MICHAEL FORSYTHE and JONATHAN ANSFIELD 6:02 PM ET

• A tiny group of small-time merchants and villagers in China control multibillion-dollar stakes in the Anbang Insurance Group, a global deal maker that owns the Waldorf Astoria in New York.

milquetoast,
(mĭlk'tōst')
n.
One who has a meek, timid, unassertive nature.

[After Caspar Milquetoast, a comic-strip character created by Harold Tucker Webster (1885-1952).]

milquetoasty milque'toast'y adj.

WORD HISTORY An indication of the effect on the English language of popular culture is the adoption of names from the comic strips as English words. Casper Milquetoast, created by Harold Webster in 1924, was a timid and retiring man named for a timid food. The first instance of milquetoast as a common noun is found in the mid-1930s. Milquetoast thus joins the ranks of other such words, including sad sack, from a blundering army private invented by George Baker in 1942, and Wimpy, from J. Wellington Wimpy in the Popeye comic strip, which became a trade name for a hamburger. If we look to a related form of popular culture, the animated cartoon, we must of course acknowledge Mickey Mouse, which has become a slang term for something that is easy, insignificant, small-time, worthless, or petty.

 From the character Caspar Milquetoast of the comic strip The Timid Soul, created by Harold Webster and first published in 1924 (named after the American dish milk toast).


Milquetoast Golf NHe Plays The Boss A Dollar A Hole American Cartoon 1931 By Harold T Webster Featuring His Timid Soul Caspar Milquetoast Poster Print by...
small-time
having little or no importance or influence: a small-time politician. [1910–15]. 

timid
(tĭm'ĭd)
adj., -er, -est.

1. Lacking self-confidence; shy.
2. Fearful and hesitant: problems that call for bold, not timid, responses.

[Latin timidus, from timēre, to fear.]

timidity ti·mid'i·ty or tim'id·ness n.
timidly tim'id·ly adv.

blunder[blun・der]

• 発音記号[blʌ'ndər]

[名]大失敗, へま. ▼無知・不注意などによる大失敗. ⇒MISTAKE[類語]

a ghastly blunder
大へま

commit ［make］ a grave blunder
重大な失策を犯す.

━━[動](自)

1 （方向がわからず）うろうろする, まごまごし［つまずき］ながら（…を）進む；（…に）うっかりはいり込む((in, into ...))

blunder along
とぼとぼ行く

blunder about ［around］ in the dark
暗やみでうろうろする

blunder against ［into］ the wall
壁にぶつかる

blunder into the ladies' room
うっかり女性トイレにはいり込む.

2 （不注意・まごつきなどから）大失敗する, へまをやる

blunder badly
大失敗する.

━━(他)

1 …をやりそこなう；〈財産・機会などを〉（不手ぎわで）失う((away))；…を（…の状態に）間違って至らしめる((into ...))

blunder away thousands of pounds
へまをして数千ポンド失う.

2 〈秘密などを〉ついうっかり口にする；〈弁解などを〉しどろもどろに言う((out)).

blunder upon ［on］ ...

〈新事実などを〉偶然［まぐれ当たりで］見つける.

［スカンジナビア語. BLIND（盲人の）と関係があり, 原義は「盲人のごとくふるまう」］

blun・der・ing・ly

[副]