From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishtongue-tiedˈtongue-tied adjective EMBARRASSEDunable to talk in a relaxed way because you feel nervous or embarrassed When adults spoke to her, she became tongue-tied and shy.
Examples from the Corpus
tongue-tied• Whatever he might fling at her this time, she would not sit bowed and tongue-tied.• I had tried since, alone and with others, and I'd been tongue-tied.• She reeled off my 752 failings, whereas I was tongue-tied.• The boy was quieter than his sister, and gave tongue-tied answers.• Both of them were easy victims: where she was slow and tongue-tied, he was short and physically weedy.• He often sounds tongue-tied in interviews.• Outside the courtroom, Kevin is a tongue-tied lunkhead.• Nervousness affects people in different ways. While some people become tongue-tied, others cannot stop talking.• She went to Druid's Bottom but she felt tongue-tied there.• Benny stumbled from time to time, and became tongue-tied when she looked at the handsome boy sitting beside them.• She became tongue-tied when she looked at the handsome man sitting beside her. 