TONGUE

an organ situated in the floor of the mouth of most vertebrates and connected with the hyoid arch.

The power of articulate utterance; speech. Parrots imitating human tongue. Dryden.

Discourse; fluency of speech or expression. Much tongue and much judgment seldom go together. L. Estrange.

Honorable discourse; eulogy. [Obs.] She was born noble; let that title find her a private grave, but neither tongue nor honor. Beau. & Fl.

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.

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.

A people having a distinct language. A will gather all nations and tongues. Isa. lxvi. 18.

The lingual ribbon, or odontophore, of a mollusk.

The proboscis of a moth or a butterfly.

The lingua of an insect.

Any small sole.

That which is considered as resembing an animal's tongue, in position or form. Specifically: --

A projection, or slender appendage or fixture; as, the tongue of a buckle, or of a balance.

A projection on the side, as of a board, which fits into a groove.

A point, or long, narrow strip of land, projecting from the mainland into a sea or a lake.

The pole of a vehicle; especially, the pole of an ox cart, to the end of which the oxen are yoked.

The clapper of a bell.

To speak; to utter. "Such stuff as madmen tongue." Shak.

To chide; to scold. How might she tongue me. Shak .

To modulate or modify with the tongue, as notes, in playing the flute and some other wind instruments.

To join means of a tongue and grove; as, to tongue boards together.

To talk; to prate. Dryden.

To use the tongue in forming the notes, as in playing the flute and some other wind instruments.