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.
--Chaucer.
2. The power of articulate utterance; speech.
Parrots imitating human tongue. --Dryden.
3. Discourse; fluency of speech or expression.
Much tongue and much judgment seldom go together.
--L. Estrange.
4. Honorable discourse; eulogy. [Obs.]
She was born noble; let that title find her a
private grave, but neither tongue nor honor. --Beau.
& Fl.
5. A language; the whole sum of words used by a particular
nation; as, the English tongue. --Chaucer.
Whose tongue thou shalt not understand. --Deut.
xxviii. 49.
To speak all tongues. --Milton.
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. --1 John iii.
18.
7. A people having a distinct language.
A will gather all nations and tongues. --Isa. lxvi.
18.
8. (Zo["o]l.)
(a) The lingual ribbon, or odontophore, of a mollusk.
(b) The proboscis of a moth or a butterfly.
(c) The lingua of an insect.
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.
2. (Mus.) To use the tongue in forming the notes, as in
playing the flute and some other wind instruments.
How might she tongue me. --Shak.
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.