mealy-mouthed

See also: mealymouthed

English

Alternative forms

• mealmouthed, meal-mouthed
• mealymouthed

Etymology

Possibly from German Mehl im Maule behalten, via Martin Luther

Adjective

mealy-mouthed (comparative more mealy-mouthed, superlative most mealy-mouthed)

1. Prone to speaking evasively, indirectly, or duplicitously; not forthright.
   • 1849, Thoreau, A week on the Concord and Merrimack rivers, page 115:

     The surliness with which the woodchopper speaks of his woods, handling them as indifferently as his axe, is better than the mealy-mouthed enthusiasm of the lover of nature.

   • 2020, Miram Gloger, “Letters to the Editor: Envisioning Solidarity”, in Jewish Currents‎^[1]:

     The editors engage in mealy-mouthed apologetics, setting up Orthodox Jews as agents of gentrification, yet they fail to note that it is not white hipsters being beaten but longtime residents of Williamsburg and Crown Heights.

Related terms

• mealmouth

Translations

not forthright

• Bulgarian: неискрен (bg) (neiskren)
• Dutch: huichelachtig (nl)
• French: hypocrite (fr)
• German: mit mehligem Mund, ausweichend (de), gewunden (de), sich windend
• Hungarian: köntörfalazó (hu)
• Russian: неи́скренний (ru) m (neískrennij), сладкоречи́вый (ru) m (sladkorečívyj)

References

• “mealy-mouthed”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.