(~s)
1.
Your ~ is the soft movable part inside your mouth which you use for tasting, eating, and speaking.
I walked over to the mirror and stuck my ~ out...
She ran her ~ around her lips.
N-COUNT: usu poss N
2.
You can use ~ to refer to the kind of things that a person says.
She had a nasty ~, but I liked her.
N-COUNT: usu supp N
3.
A ~ is a language. (LITERARY)
The French feel passionately about their native ~.
= language
N-COUNT
see also mother ~
4.
Tongue is the cooked ~ of an ox or sheep. It is usually eaten cold.
N-VAR
5.
The ~ of a shoe or boot is the piece of leather which is underneath the laces.
N-COUNT
6.
A ~ of something such as fire or land is a long thin piece of it. (LITERARY)
A yellow ~ of flame shot upwards.
N-COUNT: N of n
7.
A ~-in-cheek remark or attitude is not serious, although it may seem to be.
...a lighthearted, ~-in-cheek approach...
PHRASE: PHR n, v-link PHR, PHR after v
8.
If you hold your ~, you do not say anything even though you might want to or be expected to, because it is the wrong time to say it.
Douglas held his ~, preferring not to speak out on a politically sensitive issue.
PHRASE: V inflects
9.
If you describe something you said as a slip of the ~, you mean that you said it by mistake.
At one stage he referred to Anna as John’s fiancee, but later said that was a slip of the ~.
PHRASE: slip inflects
10.
to bite your ~: see bite