From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishtonguetongue1 /tʌŋ/ ●●● S3 W3 noun 1 mouth [countable]HBH 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 tongue3 → sharp tongue4 → silver tongue5 → sharp-tongued/silver-tongued etc6 → with (your) tongue in (your) cheek7 → slip of the tongue8 → bite your tongue9 → Cat got your tongue?10 → get your tongue around something11 → trip/roll off the tongue12 → loosen somebody’s tongue13 → find your tongue14 → set tongues wagging15 → keep a civil tongue in your head16 → speak with forked tongue17 → speak in tongues18 language literarySL 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 [uncountable]DF the tongue of a cow or sheep, cooked and eaten cold20 shape [countable]CF something that has a long thin shapetongue of Huge tongues of fire were licking the side of the building.21 shoeDC [countable] 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 tip1(5), → hold your tongue at hold1(29)
Examples from the Corpus
tongue• Russian is not a tongue I speak.• She moistened her lips with the tip of her tongue and his sudden tension told her she was right.• Her tongue turned black and choked her.• Always soft and fuzzed with pocket lint, they would sit on his tongue like dry bitter cotton.• As soon as he saw the tongues, he knew.• The computer, for disabled people, is operated using your tongue.stuck out ... tongue• Stuart sighed and Linda Paterson stuck out her tongue at him.• Her eyes flickered towards him and she playfully stuck out her tongue.• She stuck out her tongue. ` Anyway, emergency medicine is great stuff.mother/native tongue• An assistant began waving his arms and talking to the dealer noisily in his native tongue.• The words, in his native tongue, were few and easy to learn.• It was weird, because it sure sounded like my native tongue.• But for most of us our native tongue is alive and constantly shifting.• At first it seems the girls are singing in their native tongue.tongue of• the thirsty tongues of tree rootstonguetongue2 verb 1 [intransitive, transitive] to use your tongue to make separate sounds when playing a musical instrument2 [transitive] to touch something with your tongue→ See Verb tableExamples from the Corpus
tongue• Her hair was rather wild, her tongue eloquent.Origin tongue Old English tunge 