Word.ws English Dictionary

oil and water don't mix

oil and water don't mix proverb: black people and white people should not form relationships; an admonition against interracial relationships.

Proverb

oil and water don't mix

  1. (dated, derogatory, offensive, proscribed) Black people and white people should not form relationships; an admonition against interracial relationships.
    • 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. (broadly) Some 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

Questions about oil and water don't mix

What does oil and water don't mix mean?
Oil and water don't mix means black people and white people should not form relationships; an admonition against interracial relationships.
What part of speech is oil and water don't mix?
Oil and water don't mix is a proverb.

Words near oil and water don't mix in the dictionary

  1. oiks
  2. oikumene
  3. oikumenes
  4. oil
  5. oil and water
  6. oil and water don't mix
  7. oil baron
  8. oil barons
  9. oil barrel
  10. oil bath
  11. oil baths

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: oil and water don't mix (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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