形容詞 mealy-mouthed:

1. hesitant to state facts or opinions simply and directly as from e.g. timidity or hypocrisy
   同義詞：mealymouthed

1. Don't be so mealy-mouthed, say what you mean!
   別這麼繞彎子了，有話直說(shuō)吧！

meal.y-mouthed

adj.（形容詞）
Unwilling to state facts or opinions simply and directly.
不坦率的：不愿意簡(jiǎn)單地、直接地陳述事實(shí)和意見的

<注釋>One does not hear the wordmealy-mouthed today as much as one could, since the unwillingness to state facts or opinions directly seems a perennial condition of leaders and their underlings in all walks of life.It would be singularly appropriate if a man who was noted for not being mealy-mouthed had helped give us this word.The term does perhaps come to us from an expression such as GermanMehl im Maule behalten, .to carry meal in the mouth, that is, not to be direct in speech..The expression occurs in the writings of Martin Luther, who was willing to speak his mind.In English we find recorded the termsmealmouth (54') and meal-mouthed (57') around the same time that we find mealymouthed (around 572), but onlymealy-mouthed has survived, fortunately for us,as it seems there will always be a need for it.
人們聽到mealy-mouthed 這個(gè)詞的次數(shù)不如過(guò)去那么多了， 因?yàn)椴辉柑孤收f(shuō)出事實(shí)和看法似乎已經(jīng)成了各行各業(yè)的領(lǐng)導(dǎo)和下屬們的長(zhǎng)期不變的狀況。如果是一個(gè)并不拐彎抹角的人給我們帶來(lái)這個(gè)詞那將是再合適不過(guò)了。這種說(shuō)法可能是從德語(yǔ)的Mehl im Maule behalten 而來(lái)， 即.嘴里含著肉，也就是說(shuō)，說(shuō)話不直接了當(dāng).。這種說(shuō)法出現(xiàn)在很愿意說(shuō)出自己想法的馬丁·路德的文章里。在英語(yǔ)中我們發(fā)現(xiàn)mealmouth (54'年）和 meal-mouthed (57'年）記錄的時(shí)間與發(fā)現(xiàn) mealymouthed （大約572年）記錄的時(shí)間差不多， 但是只有mealy-mouthed 流傳下來(lái)了， 這真是幸運(yùn)，因?yàn)榭雌饋?lái)我們一直需要這個(gè)詞