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：不愿意簡單地、直接地陳述事實和意見的

<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 這個詞的次數(shù)不如過去那么多了， 因為不愿坦率說出事實和看法似乎已經(jīng)成了各行各業(yè)的領(lǐng)導和下屬們的長期不變的狀況。如果是一個并不拐彎抹角的人給我們帶來這個詞那將是再合適不過了。這種說法可能是從德語的Mehl im Maule behalten 而來， 即.嘴里含著肉，也就是說，說話不直接了當.。這種說法出現(xiàn)在很愿意說出自己想法的馬丁·路德的文章里。在英語中我們發(fā)現(xiàn)mealmouth (54'年）和 meal-mouthed (57'年）記錄的時間與發(fā)現(xiàn) mealymouthed （大約572年）記錄的時間差不多， 但是只有mealy-mouthed 流傳下來了， 這真是幸運，因為看起來我們一直需要這個詞