tongue 1 S3 W3 / tʌŋ / 名词

1 mouth [可数名词] 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 短语 :

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 短语 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 [不可数名词] the tongue of a cow or sheep, cooked and eaten cold

20 shape [可数名词] something that has a long thin shape

tongue of

Huge tongues of fire were licking the side of the building.

21 shoe [可数名词] 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 )