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Synonyms for mealy-mouthed


Grammar : Adj
Spell : mee-lee-moutht, -mouth d
Phonetic Transcription : ˈmi liˌmaʊθt, -ˌmaʊðd



Définition of mealy-mouthed

Origin :
  • "afraid to say what one really thinks," 1570s; first element perhaps from Old English milisc "sweet," from Proto-Germanic *meduz "honey" (see mead (n.1)), which suits the sense, but if the Old English word did not survive long enough to be the source of this, perhaps the first element is from meal (n.2) on notion of the "softness" of ground flour (cf. Middle English melishe (adj.) "friable, loose," used of soils).
  • adj pretentious
Example sentences :
  • We ain't as mealy-mouthed and as p'lite and as smooth-tongued as the moderns.
  • Extract from : « One Of Them » by Charles James Lever
  • Why are we so mealy-mouthed in denouncing these golden-idol men?
  • Extract from : « Broken Bread » by Thomas Champness
  • I s'pose you've been pumping that mealy-mouthed landlubber of a Dolph.
  • Extract from : « Jim Spurling, Fisherman » by Albert Walter Tolman
  • But the visual image in the masterly original Greek is not so mealy-mouthed.
  • Extract from : « Bunyan Characters - Third Series » by Alexander Whyte
  • He was not straitlaced, or mealy-mouthed, or overburthened with scruples.
  • Extract from : « Orley Farm » by Anthony Trollope
  • The days of mealy-mouthed suavity had not yet come to the Faculty.
  • Extract from : « A Book about Doctors » by John Cordy Jeaffreson
  • Howsever, when theyre a settled, Ill no be mealy-mouthed wi them.
  • Extract from : « The Entail » by John Galt
  • He's mealy-mouthed with the woman, and mealy-mouthed with the man, and mealy-mouthed with everybody.
  • Extract from : « Charlemont » by W. Gilmore Simms
  • What's more, there was the mealy-mouthed Marvell to reckon with.
  • Extract from : « Memoirs of a Midget » by Walter de la Mare
  • "Keep your mealy-mouthed compassion for yourself," he retorted, sneering.
  • Extract from : « The Destroying Angel » by Louis Joseph Vance

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Based on : Thesaurus.com - Gutenberg.org - Dictionary.com - Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019