butter wouldn't melt (in his/her mouth), looks as if
butter wouldn't melt (in someone's mouth)
Prov. Someone is acting as if innocent. By the time her parents came home, Emily had cleaned up all evidence of having broken the valuable figurine, and she looked as though butter wouldn't melt in her mouth. Jane: How can you suspect George of playing that practical joke on you? He looks so innocent. Jill: Yes, butter wouldn't melt, I'm sure.
See also: butter, melt
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs.
ˌbutter wouldn’t ˈmelt (in somebody’s ˈmouth)
(spoken) a person looks very innocent, but probably is not: She looks as if butter wouldn’t melt in her mouth, but don’t be fooled by first impressions!See also: butter, melt
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary
butter wouldn't melt (in his/her mouth), looks as if
Suspiciously coy or demure, too good to be true. This expression dates from the early sixteenth century and was already a proverb in John Heywood’s 1546 collection. It recurs again and again (Swift, Dickens, Thackeray, Shaw) and has been a cliché for at least a century.
See also: butter, if, look, melt
The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer
- Give an inch and he'll take a mile
- eye for an eye
- trouble shared is a trouble halved
- One's bark is worse than bite
- many a slip 'twixt the cup and the lip, there's
- Set a beggar on horseback, and he'll ride to the devil
- mills of God grind slowly, yet they grind exceeding small
- thing you don't want is dear at any price
- no accounting for tastes, there is no
- mind one's p's and q's, to