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Tongue   /təŋ/   Listen
noun
Tongue  n.  
1.
(Anat.) An organ situated in the floor of the mouth of most vertebrates and connected with the hyoid arch. Note: The tongue is usually muscular, mobile, and free at one extremity, and in man other mammals is the principal organ of taste, aids in the prehension of food, in swallowing, and in modifying the voice as in speech. "To make his English sweet upon his tongue."
2.
The power of articulate utterance; speech. "Parrots imitating human tongue."
3.
Discourse; fluency of speech or expression. "Much tongue and much judgment seldom go together."
4.
Honorable discourse; eulogy. (Obs.) "She was born noble; let that title find her a private grave, but neither tongue nor honor."
5.
A language; the whole sum of words used by a particular nation; as, the English tongue. "Whose tongue thou shalt not understand." "To speak all tongues."
6.
Speech; words or declarations only; opposed to thoughts or actions. "My little children, let us love in word, neither in tongue, but in deed and in truth."
7.
A people having a distinct language. "A will gather all nations and tongues."
8.
(Zool.)
(a)
The lingual ribbon, or odontophore, of a mollusk.
(b)
The proboscis of a moth or a butterfly.
(c)
The lingua of an insect.
9.
(Zool.) Any small sole.
10.
That which is considered as resembing an animal's tongue, in position or form. Specifically:
(a)
A projection, or slender appendage or fixture; as, the tongue of a buckle, or of a balance.
(b)
A projection on the side, as of a board, which fits into a groove.
(c)
A point, or long, narrow strip of land, projecting from the mainland into a sea or a lake.
(d)
The pole of a vehicle; especially, the pole of an ox cart, to the end of which the oxen are yoked.
(e)
The clapper of a bell.
(f)
(Naut.) A short piece of rope spliced into the upper part of standing backstays, etc.; also. the upper main piece of a mast composed of several pieces.
(g)
(Mus.) Same as Reed, n., 5.
To hold the tongue, to be silent.
Tongue bone (Anat.), the hyoid bone.
Tongue grafting. See under Grafting.
Synonyms: Language; speech; expression. See Language.


verb
Tongue  v. t.  (past & past part. tongued; pres. part. tonguing)  
1.
To speak; to utter. "Such stuff as madmen tongue."
2.
To chide; to scold. "How might she tongue me."
3.
(Mus.) To modulate or modify with the tongue, as notes, in playing the flute and some other wind instruments.
4.
To join means of a tongue and grove; as, to tongue boards together.


Tongue  v. i.  
1.
To talk; to prate.
2.
(Mus.) To use the tongue in forming the notes, as in playing the flute and some other wind instruments.





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Tongue" Quotes from Famous Books



... master-pieces 'too gutterly gutter'; they cannot sympathize with this honest humour and conscious pathos. Consequently the innumerable references to Sam Weller, and Mrs. Gamp, and Mr. Pecksniff, and Mr. Winkle, which fill our ephemeral literature, are written for these persons in an unknown tongue. The number of people who could take a good pass in Mr. Calverley's Pickwick Examination Paper is said to be diminishing. Pathetic questions are sometimes put. Are we not too much cultivated? Can this fastidiousness be anything but a casual passing phase of taste? Are all ...
— A Week's Tramp in Dickens-Land • William R. Hughes
... Government? For Government is a thing that governs, that guides; and if need be, compels. Visible in France there is not such a thing. Invisible, inorganic, on the other hand, there is: in Philosophe saloons, in Oeil-de-Boeuf galleries; in the tongue of the babbler, in the pen of the pamphleteer. Her Majesty appearing at the Opera is applauded; she returns all radiant with joy. Anon the applauses wax fainter, or threaten to cease; she is heavy of heart, the light of her face has fled. Is Sovereignty some poor Montgolfier; which, blown into ...
— The French Revolution • Thomas Carlyle
... I've brought to this place? Lad's right about the liquor, too, and damned if I'll drink a drop of it mysel'. Same time, working-man or no, he's worth any two of you wi' his fists, and, I'll bate, has more brains than the rest of us put together. So keep a civil tongue in your head in the presence of your betters, Mike Connell. Come, lad, time we were getting home. Mother ...
— The Copper Princess - A Story of Lake Superior Mines • Kirk Munroe
... white's a cauk eemage; an' it was lang or he broucht her till hersel', for he wadna lat me rin for the hoosekeeper, but sent me fleein' to the f'untain for watter, an' gied me a gowd guinea to haud my tongue aboot it a'. Sae noo, my leddy, ye're forewarnt, an' no ill can come to ye, for there's naething to be fleyt at whan ye ken what's ...
— Lippincott's Magazine, Vol. 20, August 1877 • Various
... put her ear close to his head, as if to ascertain whether he was in a sound sleep; she then took a knife from off the table, felt the edge, looked at my prostrate father, and raised it. I would have screamed, but my tongue was glued to my lips with horror. She appeared to reflect, and, after a time, laid the knife down on the table, put the palm of her hand up to her forehead, and then a smile gleamed over her moody features. "Yes, if he murders me; but they will be ...
— Poor Jack • Frederick Marryat


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