honey-tongued
English
Adjective
honey-tongued (comparative more honey-tongued, superlative most honey-tongued)
- Sweet-speaking; persuasive; seductive.
- c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Loues Labour’s Lost”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act V, scene ii]:
- This is the flower that smiles on every one,
To show his teeth as white as whale’s bone;
And consciences, that will not die in debt,
Pay him the due of honey-tongued Boyet.
- 1612, Thomas Heywood, An Apology for Actors, London: Nicholas Okes, “First touching their Antiquity,”
- In Iulius Cæsars time […] the famous hony-tong’d Orator Cicero florished; who, amongst many other his eloquent Orations, writ certaine yet extant […]
- 1634, Francis Meres, “A comparatiue discourse of our English Poets, with the Greeke, Latine, and Italian Poets” in Wits Common Wealth, The Second Part, London: William Stansby, p. 623,
- As the soule of Euphorbus was thought to liue in Pythagorus: so the sweete wittie soule of Ouid liues in mellifluous and hony-tongued Shakespeare, witnesse his Venus and Adonis, his Lucrece, his sugred Sonnets among his priuate friends, &c.
- 1826, [Mary Shelley], The Last Man. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […], OCLC 230675575, page 72-73:
- Among his other advantages, Lord Raymond was supremely handsome; every one admired him; of women he was the idol. He was courteous, honey-tongued—an adept in fascinating arts.
- 1955, C. S. Lewis, Surprised by Joy, London: Geoffrey Bles, Chapter 7, p. 109,
- He was a grey-head with large spectacles and a wide mouth which combined to give him a froglike expression, but nothing could be less froglike than his voice. He was honey-tongued. Every verse he read turned into music on his lips: something midway between speech and song.
-
Translations
sweet-speaking, persuasive
|
See also
- honey-mouthed
- silver-tongued