mealy-mouthed

comparative more mealy-mouthed · superlative most mealy-mouthed · alternative mealmouthed · alternative meal-mouthed · alternative mealymouthed

1. Prone to speaking evasively, indirectly, or duplicitously; not forthright.

   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.

   1849, Thoreau, A week on the Concord and Merrimack rivers, page 115

   1 more example

   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.

   2020, Miram Gloger, “Letters to the Editor: Envisioning Solidarity”, in Jewish Currents