give tongue
English
Verb
give tongue (third-person singular simple present gives tongue, present participle giving tongue, simple past gave tongue, past participle given tongue)Category:English lemmas#GIVETONGUECategory:English verbs#GIVETONGUECategory:English multiword terms#GIVETONGUECategory:English entries with incorrect language header#GIVETONGUECategory:Pages with entries#GIVE%20TONGUECategory:Pages with 1 entry#GIVE%20TONGUE
- (of an animal) To vocalize loudly.
- (of a dog or other canine) To bark; to howl, bay.
- The hounds gave tongue as they scented the fox nearby.Category:English terms with usage examples#GIVETONGUE
- 1778, Gregory Lewis Way, Learning at a Loss, or The Amours of Mr. Pedant and Miss Hartley, volume 2, London, page 150:
- He never goes by my Kennel but the Dogs give tongue;Category:English terms with quotations#GIVETONGUE
- 1849, Currer Bell [pseudonym; Charlotte Brontë], “Mr. Donne’s Exodus”, in Shirley. A Tale. […], volume II, London: Smith, Elder and Co., […], →OCLC, page 99:
- The black-muzzled, tawny dog, a glimpse of which was seen in the chapter which first introduced its mistress to the reader, here gave tongue in the hall, amidst whose hollow space the deep bark resounded formidably.Category:English terms with quotations#GIVETONGUE
- 1913, Peter B. Kyne, The Three Godfathers, New York: George H. Doran, page 68:
- About two o’clock in the morning the moon came out; from somewhere in the distance a coyote gave tongue, and The Worst Bad Man shivered a little.Category:English terms with quotations#GIVETONGUE
- 1928, Radclyffe Hall, chapter 4, in The Well of Loneliness, London: Jonathan Cape, →OCLC; republished New York, N.Y.: Covici Friede Publishers, October 1932, →OCLC, book 1, section 3, page 40:
- The strange, implacable heart-broken music of hounds giving tongue as they break from cover; […]Category:English terms with quotations#GIVETONGUE
- (of a bird) To cry.
- 1919, Henry De Vere Stacpoole, The Beach of Dreams, Toronto: S. B. Gundy, Part 1, Chapter 6, p. 65:
- As the boat drew near the guillemots gave tongue. The sound came against the wind fierce and complaining, antagonistic like the voice of loneliness crying out against them and telling them to be gone—be gone—be gone!Category:English terms with quotations#GIVETONGUE
- (of a dog or other canine) To bark; to howl, bay.
- (of an object that makes a loud noise) To ring out, sound.
- 1890, Rudyard Kipling, “The Drums of the Fore and Aft”, in Wee Willie Winkie and Other Stories, Allahabad: A.H. Wheeler, page 88:
- […] the bugles gave tongue jubilantly:Category:English terms with quotations#GIVETONGUE
- 1899, Alice Dunbar Nelson, “The Goodness of Saint Rocque”, in The Goodness of St. Rocque and Other Stories:
- There was a hoarse, rusty little bell on the gate that gave querulous tongue as she pushed it open.Category:English terms with quotations#GIVETONGUE
- 1917, Rafael Sabatini, chapter 1, in The Snare, page 20:
- From the belfry of the little church a bell suddenly gave tongue upon a frantic, hurried note that spoke unmistakably of alarm.Category:English terms with quotations#GIVETONGUE
- 1918, Gilbert Frankau, “The Song of the Gunner-Dead”, in The Judgement of Valhalla, London: Chatto & Windus, page 16:
- […] guns gave tongue and breech-blocks swungCategory:English terms with quotations#GIVETONGUE
And palms rammed home the shell.
- (of a person) To vocalize audibly.
- 1903, P. G. Wodehouse, “Harrison’s Slight Error”, in Tales of St. Austin’s, London: A. & C. Black, published 1923, page 45:
- His sympathetic school-fellows grasped the full humour of the situation as one man, and gave tongue once more in chorus.Category:English terms with quotations#GIVETONGUE
- 1912, Saki, “The Quest”, in The Chronicles of Clovis, London: John Lane, The Bodley Head, page 119:
- The Momebys had lost their infant child […] ; they were looking for it in wild, undisciplined fashion, giving tongue the whole time, which accounted for the outcry which swept through house and garden whenever they returned to try the home coverts anew.Category:English terms with quotations#GIVETONGUE
- 1978, Lawrence Durrell, chapter 6, in Livia, New York: Viking, published 1979, page 198:
- Here were the practice rooms where right round the clock one heard pianos playing scales and snatches of classical music, heard sopranos giving tongue, heard the gruff commentary of tubas practising.Category:English terms with quotations#GIVETONGUE
- To give expression to (something); to express.
- She felt unable to give tongue to her feelings.Category:English terms with usage examples#GIVETONGUE
- 1855, Frederick Douglass, chapter 11, in My Bondage and My Freedom. […], New York; Auburn, N.Y.: Miller, Orton & Mulligan […], →OCLC:
- The reading of these speeches added much to my limited stock of language, and enabled me to give tongue to many interesting thoughts, which had frequently flashed through my soul, and died away for want of utterance.Category:English terms with quotations#GIVETONGUE
- 1900, Sabine Baring-Gould, “Crazy Jane”, in In a Quiet Village, London: Isbister, page 314:
- Mrs. Thacker had a fretful, irritable temper, and the presence of Crazy Jane furnished her with an occasion for giving tongue to her annoyance […]Category:English terms with quotations#GIVETONGUE
- 1979, William Styron, chapter 11, in Sophie’s Choice, New York: Bantam, published 1980, page 378:
- God, if she only knew what manner of sugarplums danced in my head when she gave tongue to such delicious conceits.Category:English terms with quotations#GIVETONGUE