pablum

plural pablums

1. USuncountableusuallyAlternative letter-case form of Pablum (“a type of cereal for infants made from cornmeal, oat, and wheat”).
2. USbroadlyuncountableusuallyMushy, easily digested food; pap; (countable) a specific type of such food.

   The juice from its hydro-power dam was needed to supply meager light to a million homes and to cook the pablum for two million brand-new babies.

   1957 October, Frederik Pohl, C[yril] M. Kornbluth, “Wolfbane […]. Chapter III.”, in The Galaxy. […], volume 14, number 6, New York, N.Y.: Sheldon & Co., →OCLC, page 23, column 1

   2 more examples

   The smallest of attentions on his wife's part towards the baby […] struck him as having the nature of an affront. Clothes would have to be bought, a carriage, toys, all manner of pablums and bromides—then even larger clothes, a larger carriage, a longer bed— […]

   2005, Marc Ponomareff, “[1981]”, in The House of the Dead, Lincoln, Neb.: iUniverse, →ISBN, page 67

   They [tamarinds] can be used to sweeten and season foods such as: […] Cereal products—including Africa's many types of porridges, gruels, and pablums (fufu, ugali, toh, ogi, kisra, pap, couscous, and the rest).

   2008, “Tamarind”, in Lost Crops of Africa, volume III (Fruits), Washington, D.C.: National Academies Press, →ISBN, page 153

3. UScountablederogatoryfigurativelyuncountableusuallySomething overly bland or simplistic, especially speech or writing.

   And it [the Supreme Court] will have to elaborate on Justice [Anthony] Kennedy's nausea-inducing pablum about liberty and jurisprudences of doubt.

   2021 August 23, Josh Blackman, “The Volokh Conspiracy: Noah Feldman Indulges in Brett Kavanaugh Fan Fiction on Dobbs”, in Reason, Los Angeles, Calif.: Reason Foundation, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 15 Jun 2025

   5 more examples

   "If you want to be filled with pablum and tranquilizers," [Robert F.] Kennedy told crowds, "then don’t vote for me. I'm not going to give you any tired answers. […] I'm going to tell it like it is."

   1971, Jules Archer, quoting Robert Francis Kennedy, “The Second Kennedy Assassination”, in 1968: Year of Crisis, New York, N.Y.: Julian Messner, →ISBN, page 94

   The Republican argument today is pablum, mush and saccharine. (Which exhausts my edible metaphors.) Do Republicans really think that America's big problems are "taxes" and "trust"? Give me a cake.

   1992 October 23, Ben Wattenberg, “Writer likes [Bill] Clinton”, in The Daily Sentinel, volume 43, number 128, Pomeroy; Middleport, Ohio: Multimedia, Inc., →OCLC, page 2

   [Adolf] Hitler's career coincided with the growth of these tensions. He offered scapegoats, revenge, nationalism, racial superiority, and prowess at arms—pablums for a nervous people.

   1996, Glen Jeansonne, “Epilogue: ‘Can We All Get Along?’”, in Women of the Far Right: The Mothers’ Movement and World War II, Chicago, Ill.; London: University of Chicago Press, →ISBN, page 188

   Maybe we just don’t buy the pap, pablum and Pollyanification of the Futurama world view any longer because we are simply more sophisticated than the 1939ers.

   1996 May, David Hillel Gelernter, “Prologue: The Center of Time”, in 1939, the Lost World of the Fair, New York, N.Y.: Avon Books, →ISBN, page 29

   To me, these points seem bland, boring, obvious—verging on tautology or pablum. To many believers in the worldview I have described, they are either straightforward heresy or a smokescreen for some real, underlying agenda—which is identified as communism, anarchism, or, somewhat confusingly, both.

   2008, James Boyle, “A Creative Commons”, in The Public Domain: Enclosing the Commons of the Mind (A Caravan Book), New Haven, Conn.; London: Yale University Press, →ISBN, page 200

   Synonyms: pabulum, pap

alternative pablum

1. USuncountableA type of cereal for infants made from cornmeal, oat, and wheat.

   1 more example

   Now your baby is even luckier! He'll enjoy new flavor variety with four Pablum cereals— […] They're all equally good for Baby—all based on the original Pablum formula. […] Remember—Pablum is the world's first precooked vitamin and mineral enriched cereal, and doctors have prescribed it for almost twenty years.

   1951 July 23, “Now Watch Baby’s Progress on All Four! [advertisement]”, in Henry R[obinson] Luce, editor, Life, volume 31, number 4, Chicago, Ill.; New York, N.Y.: Time Inc., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 2