mealy-mouthed

mealy-mouthed

Hesitant or unwilling to state something bluntly and directly when speaking, especially facts or opinions that are considered divisive or controversial. Everyone keeps having these mealy-mouthed conversations about crime in poor areas of the city, unwilling to talk about the scumbags who are to blame.
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.
See also:
  • mealy
  • reluctant
  • reluctant to (do something)
  • reluctant to do
  • aah
  • um and aah
  • um and ah
  • stir the possum
  • going great guns
  • great guns
References in periodicals archive
Chalk adds: "My reading of the Act is that the Jockey Club is being mealy-mouthed in its approach.
Under The Microscope: `Mealy-mouthed Club needs to do much more' Jockeys' Association view
Contrast that with the mealy-mouthed views expressed by Clinton's press secretary, Joe Lockhart, who answered reporters' questions about the reunion of the largest chunks of the Standard Oil empire by explaining that President Clinton "believes that mergers that make us more globally competitive have a positive role to play."
The Return of Big Oil
After these first sessions, I felt incredibly mealy-mouthed and inarticulate.
Brave New Yackety-Yak
As for art writers, there's hardly one on the dailies and Sundays who isn't mealy-mouthed, suspicious, or downright cynical.
Vanity fare
The phantom's use of "just one reason" and "some of us" is mealy-mouthed innuendo, but the rap on grammar is valid.
'When you say something, make sure ....' (grammatical errors) (Wood on Words) (Column)
The subject was none other than ethics in government, and the piece was included in a slick report, "Ethics in American Business." Tower's mealy-mouthed essay noted the importance of integrity in government but warned that citizens should not demand too much from their officials.
From the horse's mouth
Travel companies and insurers will rightly face flak should they hide behind mealy-mouthed Foreign Office advice and small print on policies when families are understandably worried about staying in, or going to, Turkey this summer.
No delight for tourists
Then he offered up a mealy-mouthed one which was instantly derailed by his toddler-like comment: "Well, I didn't start it - he did, so he needs to stop wimping around."
ETON YOUR WORDS!
And not make me cringe at yet another piece of mealy-mouthed and deliberately misleading political spin.
Organ donation is actually ending
PRINCE Charles has kicked mealy-mouthed political correctness in the teeth to wade into the IS debate, proving how much we need an outgoing future king to replace the bland Elizabeth II, whose reign now drags.
Prince Charles tells it like it is
The NHS belongs to the people and we do not want privatisation, but Mr P Armstrong is using mealy-mouthed words like "free at the point of entry".
Not all that it seems; Views of the North
Not a rare bird, not a quiet rural householder, nor the beauty of the landscape, nor even the human rights of those who choose to live in it can escape the ravages of the 'wind scam merchants.' .' In 2009 the brave Landscape Officer of Conwy Borough Council stood out in front of his mealy-mouthed peers and dared to say that the industrialisation of Mwdwl Eithin with massive wind turbines was an unacceptable intrusion on our hills in a protected landscape.
Double talk as our hillsides are ruined; LETTERS
"These issues are too serious for us to be mealy-mouthed and for us to be dragging our heels."
Breaking a deafening silence
Then, on Monday, they quietly usher Mancini - who, in fairness, delivered the club long-awaited silverware - out of the exit door with little more than a mealy-mouthed 'official statement'.
Why cash-rich City could really learn from Everton
Even if one were to stretch credulity to its limits, and accept their mealy-mouthed excuses, it doesn''t inspire the populace to entrust the financial affairs of a major nation when (even if one were to believe their stories), they appear to be totally incapable of managing their own.
Hardly inspiring; LETTERS to the EDITOR