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Glite Dictionary
melt in the mouth

melt in the mouth

1 3.6
So soft and tender that it disappears when you eat it
  • idiom
translation icon : se derrite en la boca
  • Her grandmother's cookies were famous for being soft and melting in the mouth after baking.

Examples

  • Dorabella had made omelettes that melted in the mouth like butter and a crisp green salad.

    Fiction book (1995)

  • A woman without a few laying hens could never make a cake to melt in the mouth, or rush out and wring a chicken's neck for a Sunday caller.

    Fiction book (1995)

  • The chocolate mousse was so rich that it melted in the mouth with every spoonful.

  • This steak is cooked to perfection and melts in the mouth with each bite.

Synonyms

melty
vsmelt in the mouth
  • Informal
1 3.8

Soft and gooey when warm, often used for food

dissolves or becomes very easy to eat when placed in the mouth

Antonyms

tough
31 1.7

Hard to cut and chew, often meat or old bread

chewy
27 1.0

Hard to bite and break with your teeth because it is tough and a little rubbery

How Soft

melt in the mouth
1 3.6
soft
552 1.0
tender
56 1.0
firm
30 1.0
chewy
27 1.0

Surface Forms

melt in the mouth positive

Morphology

melt + in + the + mouth

The sense of food becoming so soft it seems to 'melt' when placed 'in the mouth' is directly and literally built from the constituents 'melt' + 'in' + 'mouth', creating a clear physical image. This construction is common cross-linguistically (e.g. Spanish 'se derrite en la boca', French 'fond dans la bouche'), so a B1 learner who knows the words will readily infer the meaning.

Etymology

Melt in the mouth comes from the image of food that seems to melt on your mouth, like butter or chocolate that becomes soft and almost disappears when you bite it. That's why it means 'very tender', 'soft', or 'delicious'.