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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



... must have had in my hands—gathered there within a space of five minutes—about 4000 gulden. That, of course, was the proper moment for me to have departed, but there arose in me a strange sensation as of a challenge to Fate—as of a wish to deal her a blow on the cheek, and to put out my tongue at her. Accordingly I set down the largest stake allowed by the rules—namely, 4000 gulden—and lost. Fired by this mishap, I pulled out all the money left to me, staked it all on the same venture, and—again lost! Then I rose from the table, feeling as though I were stupefied. What had happened ...
— The Gambler • Fyodor Dostoyevsky
... equinoctial gales, blowing from the far-off orchards of Meudon, or the old market gardens of Suresnes in their autumnal decay, and laden, we do not know why, with strange, mysterious, troubling reminiscence too subtle and elusive to be expressed in any tongue—too sweet for any words! And then the dark December wind that comes down from the north, and brings the short, early twilights and the snow, and drives us home, pleasantly shivering, to the chimney-corner and the hissing ...
— Peter Ibbetson • George du Marier et al
... "Hold your tongue, hussy!" cried her husband gruffly. "Women ought never to show themselves on these occasions, unless they can ...
— Jack Sheppard - A Romance • William Harrison Ainsworth
... "Now howl' yer tongue!" interposed M'Nab, who, with the half-caste—a lithe, active lad of eighteen—had joined us. "Is it swappin' ye want wi' decent men? Sure thon poor craytur iv a baste hes n't got the sthrenth fur till kerry it ...
— Such is Life • Joseph Furphy
... to understand," resumed the missionary, "that it is an honor to be a Jew. I have not come here to lessen the red men in their own eyes, but to do them honor. I see that Bear's Meat wishes to say something; my ears are open, and my tongue is still." ...
— Oak Openings • James Fenimore Cooper


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