or meal-mouthed, mealy, adj. (old: now recognised).—Fluent; plausible; persuasive. See also quot. 1748. Cf. MEAL-MOUTH.
1587. J. HARMAR, trans. Beza’s Sermons, 315. Ye whited walls and painted sepulchres, ye MEAL-MOUTHED counterfeits, ye devourers of widows.
1598. MARSTON, Satires, ii.
| Who would imagine yonder sober man, | |
| That same devout MEALE-MOUTH’D precisian … | |
| Is a vile, sober, dam’d polititian? |
1600. DEKKER, The Shoemaker’s Holiday [GROSART (1873), i. 13]. This wench with the MEALY MOUTH that wil neuer tire, is my wife I can tel you.
1606. JOHN DAY, The Ile of Guls, iv. 4. p. 93. Wife. Tho I may not scold I may tel em roundly out I hope … and Ile not be MEALELY MOUTHD, I warrant em.
1631. SHIRLEY, Love Tricks, i. 1. A very crazy, old, MEAL-MOUTH’D gentleman; you are younger at least by thirty years.
1639. FLETCHER, The Bloody Brother, iii. 2. A place too good for thee, thou MEAL-MOUTH’D rascal!
1748. T. DYCHE, A New General English Dictionary (5 ed.). MEALY-MOUTHED, one that is faint-hearted, bashful, or afraid to speak his mind freely.
1759. J. TOWNLEY, High Life below Stairs, ii. 1. Kit. Out, you MEALY-MOUTHED cur!
1785. GROSE, A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, s.v.
1854. WHYTE-MELVILLE, General Bounce, ix. ‘We might get money—ay, plenty of it—if you were only like the rest: you’re too MEALY-MOUTHED, Mrs. Blacke, that’s where it is.’
1854. DICKENS, Hard Times, I didn’t mince the matter with him. I’m never MEALY with ’em.
1886. Edinburgh Review, clxiii. 425. Angry men hotly in earnest are not usually MEALY-MOUTHED.
