honey-tongued
English
[edit]Adjective
[edit]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, [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, “First touching their Antiquity”, in An Apology for Actors[1], London: Nicholas Okes:
- 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[2], London: William Stansby, page 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, pages 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, chapter 7, in Surprised by Joy[3], London: Geoffrey Bles, page 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
[edit]sweet-speaking, persuasive
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