Word.ws English Dictionary

butter wouldn't melt in someone's mouth

butter wouldn't melt in someone's mouth phrase: the identified person appears to be benign, mild-mannered, or calm (but with an integral suggestion that, to the contrary, they really are untrustworthy, disagreeable, or mean-spirited).

Phrase

butter wouldn't melt in someone's mouth

  1. (idiomatic) The identified person appears to be benign, mild-mannered, or calm (but with an integral suggestion that, to the contrary, they really are untrustworthy, disagreeable, or mean-spirited).
    • Col. Why, they say she's one of the chief toasts in town.
      Lady S. Ay, when all the rest are out of it.
      Miss. Well; I wouldn't be as sick as she's proud for all the world.
      Lady A. She looks as if butter wouldn't melt in her mouth but, I warrant, cheese won't choke her. . . .
      Col. I can't pardon her...1738, Jonathan Swift, “Polite Conversation”, in The Works of Jonathan Swift, D. D., volume 6, published 1859, page 45
    • When a visitor comes in, she smiles and languishes, you'd think that butter wouldn't melt in her mouth: and the minute he is gone, very likely, she flares up like a little demon, and says things fit to send you wild.1850, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 61, in The History of Pendennis
  2. (idiomatic) The identified person is prim and proper, standoffish, cool, or dispassionate.
    • All unmarried women are necessarily in the market; but if they behave themselves properly they make no signs. Now there was Griselda Grantly; of course she intended to get herself a husband, and a very grand one she has got: but she always looked as though butter would not melt in her mouth.1861, Anthony Trollope, chapter 38, in Framley Parsonage
    • It was a very long way from Mozart's Pamina, Handel's Alcina, Donizetti's Adina or Bizet's butter-wouldn't-melt-in-her-mouth Micaela. Indeed, Lisa Milne had put away her shining soprano for the night. . . . The only way to reach the songs of Jacques Brel is from the heart; the only way to deliver...2004 October 21, Edward Seckerson, “Lisa Milne Sings, Jacques Brel, Wigmore Hall, London”, in Independent, UK, retrieved 12 Jul 2015

Forms of butter wouldn't melt in someone's mouth

alternative formbutter will not melt in someone's mouth
alternative formbutter won't melt in someone's mouth
alternative formbutter would not melt in someone's mouth

Questions about butter wouldn't melt in someone's mouth

What does butter wouldn't melt in someone's mouth mean?
Butter wouldn't melt in someone's mouth means the identified person appears to be benign, mild-mannered, or calm (but with an integral suggestion that, to the contrary, they really are untrustworthy, disagreeable, or mean-spirited).
What part of speech is butter wouldn't melt in someone's mouth?
Butter wouldn't melt in someone's mouth is a phrase.

Words near butter wouldn't melt in someone's mouth in the dictionary

  1. butter up
  2. Butter Week
  3. butter will not melt in someone's mouth
  4. butter won't melt in someone's mouth
  5. butter would not melt in someone's mouth
  6. butter wouldn't melt in someone's mouth
  7. butter yellow
  8. butter yellows
  9. butter-and-egg man
  10. butter-and-egg men
  11. butter-and-egg money

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: butter wouldn't melt in someone's mouth (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-butter wouldn't melt in someone's mouth.ogg.

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