honey-tongued

comparative more honey-tongued · superlative most honey-tongued

1. Sweet-speaking; persuasive; seductive.

   In Iulius Cæſars time […] the famous hony-tong’d Orator Cicero floriſhed; who, amongſt many other his eloquent Orations, writ certaine yet extant […]

   1612, Thomas Heywood, “Their Antiquity”, in An Apology for Actors, London: Nicholas Okes

   4 more examples

   This is the flower that smiles on every one, To show his teeth as white as whale’s bone; And consciences, that will not die in debt, Pay him the due of honey-tongued Boyet.

   c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Loues Labour’s Lost”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene ii]

   As the soule of Euphorbus was thought to liue in Pythagorus: so the sweete wittie soule of Ouid liues in mellifluous and hony-tongued Shakespeare, witnesse his Venus and Adonis, his Lucrece, his sugred Sonnets among his priuate friends, &c.

   1634, Francis Meres, “A comparatiue discourse of our English Poets, with the Greeke, Latine, and Italian Poets”, in Wits Common Wealth, The Second Part, London: William Stansby, page 623

   Among his other advantages, Lord Raymond was supremely handsome; every one admired him; of women he was the idol. He was courteous, honey-tongued—an adept in fascinating arts.

   1826, [Mary Shelley], The Last Man. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, pages 72-73

   He was a grey-head with large spectacles and a wide mouth which combined to give him a froglike expression, but nothing could be less froglike than his voice. He was honey-tongued. Every verse he read turned into music on his lips: something midway between speech and song.

   1955, C. S. Lewis, chapter 7, in Surprised by Joy, London: Geoffrey Bles, page 109