[f. TONGUE sb.]
1. trans. To assail with words; to reproach, scold; to discuss or talk about injuriously. In quot. 1388, to drive out by talking against.
1388. in Wyclif’s Sel. Wks., III. 493. If ony of þese curatus were trewe aungelis of God,… þai myȝtten sone be tongide out of court.
1603. Shaks., Meas. for M., IV. iv. 28. But that her tender shame Will not proclaime against her maiden losse, How might she tongue me?
1702. C. Mather, Magn. Chr., II. App. (1852), 224. Sir William was very hardly handled (or tongued, at least), in the liberty which people took to make most … injurious reflections upon his conduct.
1872. H. Cowles, in Spurgeon, Treas. Dav. (1877), IV. 413. He that tongueth his neighbour secretly.
1901. Dundee Advert., 14 Feb., 2. She met him in Small’s Wynd, and ‘tongued’ him.
2. intr. To use the tongue, talk, speak; esp. to talk volubly, to prate. (Chiefly tongue it.)
1624. Gd. News fr. N. Eng., in Story Pilgr. Fathers (Arb.), 571. Shewing how base and womanlike he was, in tonguing it, as he did.
1679. Dryden, Troil. & Cress., Pref. He shall tongue it as impetuously, and as loudly as the errantest hero in the play.
1885. Forfar, Cornish Poems, 19. The more they parley voo’d, the more Our maidens tongue’d away.
1898. Tit-Bits, 21 May, 150/2. [When] they tumble across a person who ‘tongues’ it different to them, they grimly smile.
b. Of a hound: To give tongue.
1832. [see TONGUING vbl. sb.].
1885. Househ. Words, 20 June, 142/2. ‘What’s thee tonguing like that for, Dick?’… ‘What’s amiss?’
1888. Elworthy, W. Somerset Word-bk., s.v. Tongy, I yeard the hounds tongy, and tho I zeed the fox gwain on under the hedge.
3. trans. To utter or turn over with the tongue; to say; also, to pronounce, articulate (dial.).
1611. Shaks., Cymb., V. iv. 148. ’Tis still a Dreame; or else such stuffe as Madmen tongue, and braine not.
1841. Gen. P. Thompson, Exerc. (1842), VI. 12. He took up the phrase, and tongued it over in his damning way.
1860. O. W. Holmes, Elsie V., vii. The Colonel raged … and tongued a few anathemas inside of his shut teeth.
1876. Whitby Gloss., s.v., ‘I can’t tongue ’t,’ cannot say the word.
4. To touch with the tongue; also, to lick up.
1687. Wood, Life (O.H.S.), III. 247. [They] brought many foul things against Mr. [Anthony] Farmer…, of his debauchery and lechery, that he used to tongue a certaine woman there.
a. 1700. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Velvet, c. a Tongue. Tip the Velvet, c. to Tongue a Woman.
1837. S. B. Harper, in Fraser’s Mag., XVI. 191. An icy shudder shook me through—it stuck there, As you’d tongued iron on a December morn.
1888. ‘H. S. Merriman,’ Young Mistley, II. vi. 76. Fairy [a horse] … gently tongued the bit.
1894. Baring-Gould, Kitty Alone, II. 149. The fire … was tonguing up the heap, sending the tips of its flames tastingly towards him.
b. To push out or distend with the tongue. rare.
1768. Woman of Honor, I. 160. Exposing him … by winking with one eye, and tonguing out his cheek.
5. intr. To project as a protruding tongue (of ice); to throw out tongues (of flame).
a. 1814. [see tonguing ppl. a. below].
1856. Kane, Arct. Expl., I. xxiii. 282. Old ices bulge and tongue out below.
1859. Masson, Brit. Novelists, iv. 303. Scattered through all, is the fiercer element of Fire, here tonguing over the earth wherever it may be kindled, there flashing through the ether.
1871. G. Meredith, H. Richmond, xi. It really did look as if they [the firemen] were engaged in slaying an enormous dragon, that hissed and tongued at them.
6. trans. To furnish with a tongue (lit. or fig.).
[In this sense perh. a back-formation from TONGUED a.]
a. To give a speaking tongue or utterance to.
1602. Dekker, Satirom., K ij. Yes, yes, true chastity is tongu’d so weake, ’Tis overcome, ere it know how to speake.
1807. J. Barlow, Columb., VIII. 323. What avails … To tongue mute misery, and re-rack the soul With crimes oft copied from that bloody scroll?
1838. S. Bellamy, Betrayal, III. 102. This Nazarene … hath tongued With a strange speech this talking world of ours.
b. (a) To cut a tongue on (a plank, etc.). (b) To slit or shape a tongue in (a plant-stem or shoot) for grafting or layering.
1733. W. Ellis, Chiltern & Vale Farm., 101. Make a Groove in each Plank, and put in a Slip of Wood, like a Lath, which the Carpenters call Tongueing it.
1766. Compl. Farmer, s.v. Layer, Cut a slit upwards at a joint, as is practised in laying of carnations, which, by gardeners, is called tonguing the layers.
1825. Greenhouse Comp., I. 229. Let neither stock nor scion be tongued, but apply the scion to the stock … so that their barks on both edges and below may join.
1908. Daily Chron., 13 Nov., 6/5. Each length of maple … is tongued and grooved both at the side and ends.
c. To join or fit together by means of a tongue and groove or tongue and socket.
1823. P. Nicholson, Pract. Build., 163. The sections of two pieces of stuff, grooved and tongued together.
1835. Sir J. Ross, Narr. 2nd Voy., iv. 55. Some convenient anchorage … where we could fish or tongue the foremast.
1862. Illustr. Catal. Exhib., I. 26. The gallery floor … was closely boarded and tongued, to prevent the passage of dust.
d. To furnish with a tongue-like projection.
1900. Westm. Gaz., 6 July, 5/2. Great curling clouds of black smoke, tongued with red and yellow where the light from the fire struck it.
Hence Tonguer, an utterer, a speaker; Tonguing ppl. a. (in quot., throwing out tongues).
a. 1814. Apostate, IV. iv., in New Brit. Theatre, III. 336. The sense of guilt, With keener agony than tonguing flames Lick to the bone.
1822. New Monthly Mag., IV. 297. Ceaseless tonguers of ‘words of no tone,’ they lisp.
