Dictionary

marshmallowy en · ADJ

Etymology

From marshmallow + -y.

Meanings

1. Resembling or characteristic of a marshmallow.
   • “[…] Now who wants to try my marshmallow meringue?” We all raised our hands, so he took out six spoons, dipped them into the bowl, and handed one to each of us. It looked like whipped cream, but it was actually denser, stickier, marshmallowier, and probably one of the best things I’ve ever tasted in my entire life. 2014, Jenny Lee, chapter 21, in Secrets, Secret Service, and Room Service (Elvis and the Underdogs; 2), New York, N.Y.: Balzer + Bray, →ISBN, pages 274–275:
   • “The Peep is a monument to the industrial paradigm of ‘More, faster, sugarier, marshmallowier,”’ says another award-winning Peeps page Webmaster, Jack Eidsness, a University of Maryland computer science major. “As opposed to something like chocolate bunnies, or a peanut egg, this food goes straight for the throat![…]” 1997 March 20, Gannett News Service, “Peep Pandemonium: Sugar-coated candy rushes to shelves at Easter; gives rush to kids, adults alike”, in St. Cloud Times, 136th year, number 277, St. Cloud, Minn.: St. Cloud Newspapers, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 1B, column 1:
   • I can only guess at Wavy Gravy I scream. I suspect it's a version of heavenly hash, which is a marshmallowier version of rocky road. 1997 February 11, Mark Odegard, “English English or American English”, in alt.usage.english (Usenet), archived from the original on 19 Jun 2025:
   • An ice-cube crusher for $1, a cake slicer, something like a miniature rake, to cut smoothly through the marshmallowiest frosting without a leak, for $1, […] were just a few I put on my list. 1933 April 23, Katharine Blank, “Busy Housewife Finds Gadgets Galore for Spring Bride’s Kitchen Shower […]”, in Brooklyn Times Union, Long Island edition, 86th year, Brooklyn, N.Y., →OCLC, page 10, column 1:
2. Resembling or characteristic of a marshmallow. ▸ Soft and fluffy.
3. Tending to be a pushover; overly accommodating.
   • Percy struck some of the people who worked with him as an ineffective legislator, marshmallowy and yielding in the way of many moderate politicians. 2012, Geoffrey Kabaservice, Rule and Ruin, →ISBN, page 226:
   • I didn't want a self-pitying, poor Miss Pitiful Pearl, a marshmallowy wilted flower, or a nagging bitch for the wife. I wanted somebody with inborn dignity and pride, with the strength of understanding, a real human being. Not only a good actress. 2011, Andre De Toth, Fragments, Faber & Faber, →ISBN, page 18:
   • “It changed Gable from a heavy to a comedian in It Happened One Night. It changed Jean Arthur from a marshmallowy ingenue to a hard-boiled wise- cracker in The Whole Town's Talking.” 2002, Elizabeth Kendall, The Runaway Bride: Hollywood Romantic Comedy of the 1930s, Cooper Square Press, →ISBN, page 187:
4. Vacuous.
   • The spirit of Oprah is haunting yet another session of Sex Week. Once again, a basically tawdry event has come packaged in all kinds of marshmallowy language about self-understanding and self-acceptance. 2012, Nathan Harden, Sex and God at Yale, →ISBN, page 177:

Forms

Deriveds

marshmallowiness