Definitions for tongues

• Definition
• Anagrams (198)

tongues tongue

Spelling: [tuhng]

IPA: /tʌŋ/

Tongues is a 7 letter English word. It's valid Scrabble word worth 7 points. It's valid Words with friends word worth 10 points.

You can make 198 anagrams from letters in tongues (egnostu).

Definitions for tongues

noun

1. Anatomy. the usually movable organ in the floor of the mouth in humans and most vertebrates, functioning in eating, in tasting, and, in humans, in speaking.
2. Zoology. an analogous organ in invertebrate animals.
3. the tongue of an animal, as an ox, beef, or sheep, used for food, often prepared by smoking or pickling.
4. the human tongue as the organ of speech:
5. the faculty or power of speech:
6. speech or talk, especially mere glib or empty talk.
7. manner or character of speech:
8. the language of a particular people, region, or nation:
9. a dialect.
10. (in the Bible) a people or nation distinguished by its language.
11. tongues, speech, often incomprehensible, typically uttered during moments of religious ecstasy. Compare speaking in tongues, glossolalia.
12. an object that resembles an animal's tongue in shape, position, or function.
13. a strip of leather or other material under the lacing or fastening of a shoe.
14. a piece of metal suspended inside a bell that strikes against the side producing a sound; clapper.
15. a vibrating reed or similar structure in a musical instrument, as in a clarinet, or in part of a musical instrument, as in an organ reed pipe.
16. the pole extending from a carriage or other vehicle between the animals drawing it.
17. a projecting strip along the center of the edge or end of a board, for fitting into a groove in another board.
18. a narrow strip of land extending into a body of water; cape.
19. a section of ice projecting outward from the submerged part of an iceberg.
20. Machinery. a long, narrow projection on a machine.
21. that part of a railroad switch that is shifted to direct the wheels of a locomotive or car to one or the other track of a railroad.
22. the pin of a buckle, brooch, etc.

Idioms

1. find one's tongue, to regain one's powers of speech; recover one's poise:
2. give tongue, Fox Hunting. (of a hound) to bay while following a scent. to utter one's thoughts; speak:
3. hold one's tongue, to refrain from or cease speaking; keep silent.
4. lose one's tongue, to lose the power of speech, especially temporarily.
5. on the tip of one's / the tongue, on the verge of being uttered. unable to be recalled; barely escaping one's memory:
6. slip of the tongue, a mistake in speaking, as an inadvertent remark.
7. (with) tongue in cheek, ironically or mockingly; insincerely.

verb (used with object)

1. to articulate (tones played on a clarinet, trumpet, etc.) by strokes of the tongue.
2. Carpentry. to cut a tongue on (a board). to join or fit together by a tongue-and-groove joint.
3. to touch with the tongue.
4. to articulate or pronounce.
5. Archaic. to reproach or scold. to speak or utter.

verb (used without object)

1. to tongue tones played on a clarinet, trumpet, etc.
2. to talk, especially idly or foolishly; chatter; prate.
3. to project like a tongue.

Origin of tongues

before 900; (noun) Middle English tunge, Old English; cognate with Dutch tong, German Zunge, Old Norse tunga, Gothic tuggo; akin to Latin lingua (OL dingua); (v.) Middle English tungen to sco

Examples for tongues

Often it has been on the tip of my tongue, and then it slipped away from me.

Joe Sutter is 93 now, silver-haired and moving a tad more slowly than he would like, but still pugnacious and sharp of tongue.

Language was no barrier; just about every tongue on the planet was babbling away, caught up in the elaborate mystique of a cult.

Except for a very few words we do not know what sort of tongue it was.

The tongue is a fire, but there is a stronger fire than the tongue.

Abramson, biting her tongue, was widely portrayed in rival outlets as classily above the fray.

The monkey avatar stared back at me, its tongue lolling out of its mouth.

A portly burgher was he, friendly of tongue and free of purse.

The monkey seemed to be sticking his tongue out at me in defiance.

Neither did Lizzie, though her tongue was a whip for Connie.