oil and water don't mix

proverb

Black people and white people should not form relationships; an admonition against interracial relationships.

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Meanings

proverb
  1. datedderogatoryoffensiveproscribedBlack people and white people should not form relationships; an admonition against interracial relationships.

    She say that when nigger people step out o' they place and start for rub shoulders with Bacra, trouble just 'round the corner. She say oil and water don't mix, and she going beat me if I keep company with you.

    2007, H. Nigel Thomas, Return to Arcadia, page 33
    2 more examples

    I don't think you quite realise, Benneville, what it means to be married to a native woman. It will mean that you lose friends, home, and everything that is worth living for to an Englishman. You would not be likely to make friends with the other natives. Oil and water don't mix. . .

    1974, K. Jamiluddin, The Tropic Sun: Rudyard Kipling & the Raj, page 29

    Less dramatic than open bigotry, but equally problematic, is the ignorance displayed by shop stewards and officials subscribing to what Barker (1981) has called the 'new racism' , the 'reasonable', and ' acceptable' racism of the 'I'm not racist but . . . oil and water don't mix' kind.

    1989, Richard Jenkins, John Solomos, Racism and Equal Opportunity Policies in the 1980s, page 171
  2. broadlySome people, things, or characteristics do not go together.

    And the Mennonite boys don't consider her suitable. As you know, oil and water don't mix.

    2012, Larry Warkentin, Bloodline: of Peasants, Pilgrims and Poets, page 231
  3. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see oil, water, don't, mix.

    Oil and water don't mix because oil is nonpolar and water is polar.

    2015, Kathy Wollard, How Come?: Every Kid's Science Questions Explained, page 59
Cite this entry
APA

oil and water don't mix. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/oil%20and%20water%20don't%20mix

MLA

“oil and water don't mix.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/oil%20and%20water%20don't%20mix. Accessed November 5, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “oil and water don't mix,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/oil%20and%20water%20don't%20mix.

Source: oil and water don't mix on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.