a. [ Compar. Mealier superl. Mealiest. ] 1. Having the qualities of meal; resembling meal; soft, dry, and friable; easily reduced to a condition resembling meal; as, a mealy potato. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Overspread with something that resembles meal; as, the mealy wings of an insect. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Zool.), Any of several homopteran scale insects (as, Coccus adonidum, and related species of the families Pseudococcidae and Eriococcidae), that cover themselves with a white powderlike or cottony wax secretion. They are common plant-eating pests in hothouses and are also destructive of fruit trees. [ 1913 Webster + WordNet 1.5 ]

a. Using soft words; not straightforward; plausible; affectedly or timidly delicate of speech; speaking deviously; unwilling to tell the truth in plain language. Opposite of frank or blunt. “Mealy-mouthed philanthropies.” Tennyson. [ 1913 Webster ]

She was a fool to be mealy-mouthed where nature speaks so plain. L'Estrange. [ 1913 Webster ]

-- Meal"y-mouth`ness n. [1913 Webster]