I. tongue 1 S3 W3 /tʌŋ/ BrE AmE noun
[ Language: Old English ; Origin: tunge ]
1 . MOUTH [countable] the soft part inside your mouth that you can move about and use for eating and speaking:
Joe ran his tongue over his dry lips.
The taste of the chocolate was still on her tongue.
The girl scowled at me, then stuck out her tongue.
2 . click your tongue to make a sharp noise with your tongue to show that you are annoyed or disappointed:
She clicked her tongue and shook her head.
3 . sharp tongue if you have a sharp tongue, you often talk in a way that shows you are angry:
Gina’s sharp tongue will get her into trouble one day.
4 . silver tongue literary if you have a silver tongue, you can talk in a way that makes people like you or persuades them that you are right
5 . sharp-tongued/silver-tongued etc able to talk in a very angry or pleasant way:
a sharp-tongued young teacher
6 . with (your) tongue in (your) cheek if you say something with your tongue in your cheek, you say it as a joke, not seriously ⇨ ↑ tongue-in-cheek
7 . slip of the tongue a small mistake in something you say:
Did I say $100? It must have been a slip of the tongue.
8 . bite your tongue to stop yourself saying something because you know it would not be sensible to say it:
I wanted to argue, but I had to bite my tongue.
9 . Cat got your tongue? ( also Lost your tongue? ) spoken used to ask someone why they are not talking
10 . get your tongue around something informal to be able to say a difficult word or phrase:
I couldn’t get my tongue around the names of the villages we’d visited.
11 . trip/roll off the tongue informal if a name or phrase trips or rolls off your tongue, it is easy or pleasant to say:
Their names trip off the tongue very easily.
12 . loosen sb’s tongue informal if something such as alcohol loosens your tongue, it makes you talk a lot:
The wine had certainly loosened her tongue.
13 . find your tongue informal to say something after you have been silent for a time because you were afraid or shy:
Polly found her tongue at last and told them about the attack.
14 . set tongues wagging to do something that people will talk about in an unkind way:
Angela’s divorce will certainly set tongues wagging.
15 . keep a civil tongue in your head old-fashioned spoken used to tell someone that they should talk politely to people
16 . speak with forked tongue to say things that are not true – used humorously
17 . speak in tongues to talk using strange words as part of a religious experience
18 . LANGUAGE literary a language:
Anton lapsed into his own tongue when he was excited.
mother/native tongue (=the language you learn as a child)
She felt more comfortable talking in her native tongue.
19 . FOOD [uncountable] the tongue of a cow or sheep, cooked and eaten cold
20 . SHAPE [countable] something that has a long thin shape
tongue of
Huge tongues of fire were licking the side of the building.
21 . SHOE [countable] the part of a shoe that lies on top of your foot, under the part where you tie it
⇨ on the tip of your tongue at ↑ tip 1 (5), ⇨ hold your tongue at ↑ hold 1 (29)
II. tongue 2 BrE AmE verb
1 . [intransitive and transitive] to use your tongue to make separate sounds when playing a musical instrument
2 . [transitive] to touch something with your tongue