Say what?

[Cohen, Gerald Leonard]

Sounds like some sort of combination of "tight-lipped," "closed-mouthed" and the imagery of "to clam up."
 
Gerald Cohen

________________________________

From: American Dialect Society on behalf of Wilson Gray
Sent: Tue 1/16/2007 3:04 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Say what?



The [New England] Patriots are notorious around the NFL for being
_shell-mouthed_ about injuries [to their players].

Pierce, Charles P.
Moving The Chains.
New York, 2006.

"Shell-mouthed"?

-Wilson
--
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-----
-Sam'l Clemens

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