- tongue
- [[t]tʌ̱ŋ[/t]]
tongues1) N-COUNT: usu poss N Your tongue 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 tongue out...
She ran her tongue around her lips.
2) N-COUNT: usu supp N You can use tongue to refer to the kind of things that a person says....her sharp wit and quick tongue...
She had a nasty tongue, but I liked her.
3) N-COUNT A tongue is a language. [LITERARY]→ See also mother tongueThe French feel passionately about their native tongue.
Syn:4) N-VAR Tongue is the cooked tongue of an ox or sheep. It is usually eaten cold.5) N-COUNT The tongue of a shoe or boot is the piece of leather which is underneath the laces.6) N-COUNT: N of n A tongue of something such as fire or land is a long thin piece of it. [LITERARY]A yellow tongue of flame shot upwards.
...a silver, frozen tongue of water.
7) PHRASE: PHR n, v-link PHR, PHR after v A tongue-in-cheek remark or attitude is not serious, although it may seem to be....a lighthearted, tongue-in-cheek approach...
This is all slightly tongue-in-cheek, I'd like to make that clear...
Were they written tongue-in-cheek, or with an underlying conviction?
8) PHRASE: V inflects If you hold your tongue, 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 tongue, preferring not to speak out on a politically sensitive issue.
9) PHRASE: V inflects, PHR n, usu with brd-neg If you say that you can not get your tongue round or around a particular word or phrase, you mean that you find it very difficult to pronounce.10) PHRASE: slip inflects If you describe something you said as a slip of the tongue, you mean that you said it by mistake.At one stage he referred to Anna as John's fiancée, but later said that was a slip of the tongue.
English dictionary. 2008.
