mealy-mouth
(ˈmiːlɪˈmaʊθ)
[mealy a. 8; cf. mealy-mouthed a.]
1. A mouth which never utters plain terms; a soft, indirect, or reticent manner of speaking; hence a mealy-mouthed person. Also ironically: see quot. 1941. slang.
| 1600 Dekker Gentle Craft i. (1862) 9 This wench with the mealy mouth, is my wife I can tell you. 1828 Carlyle Misc. (1857) IV. 140 Bless its mealy mouth! 1862 J. C. Jeaffreson Bk. abt. Doctors xiii. (1862) 156 Well-fed Vicars of Bray..with mealy mouths and elastic consciences. 1898 B. Kirkby Lakeland Words 100 Mealy-Mooth,..eny body 'at's mealy-moothed's o' that sooart. 1919 J. C. Snaith Love Lane xlvii. 254 It was no use having a divided mind, it was no use having a mealy-mouth. 1941 J. Smiley Hash House Lingo 37 Mealy mouth, fault finding customer. 1942 Scrutiny X. 400 Iudushka, the chief character, is the apotheosis of the mealy-mouth. |
2. dial. Applied to various birds, as the willow warbler, Phylloscopus trochilus, or the whitethroat, Sylvia communis.
| 1885 C. Swainson Provincial Names & Folklore Brit. Birds 26 Willow Warbler..Mealy mouth (Craven). 1961 Countryman LVIII. 468 A missel thrush is a ‘greybird’..the whitethroat a ‘mealymouth’ [in S. Pembrokeshire]. |