bite your tongue
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bite (one's) tongue
1. Literally, to accidentally pinch one's tongue with one's teeth. My daughter started crying after she bit her tongue.
2. To stop oneself from saying something (often something potentially inappropriate, hurtful, or offensive). I had to bite my tongue as my sister gushed about her new boyfriend yet again.
Bite your tongue!
Stop talking! An expression of frustration with what someone is saying, often because it is pessimistic. A: "Oh, I don't think I'm going to get the job." B: "Bite your tongue! You don't know that for sure."
See also: bite
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2015 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.
bite your tongue
COMMON If you bite your tongue, you do not say something that you would like to say. All I can do is to bite my tongue if I want to keep my job.
Collins COBUILD Idioms Dictionary, 3rd ed. © HarperCollins Publishers 2012
bite your tongue
make a desperate effort to avoid saying something.Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary © Farlex 2017
bite your ˈtongue
stop yourself from saying something that might upset somebody or cause an argument, although you want to speak: I didn’t believe her explanation but I bit my tongue. OPPOSITE: give somebody a piece of your mindFarlex Partner Idioms Dictionary © Farlex 2017
bite your tongue
Hope that what you just said doesn’t come true. This imperative is a translation of the Yiddish saying, Bays dir di tsung, and is used in informal conversation. For example, “You think it’ll rain on their outdoor ceremony? Bite your tongue!” A much older but related phrase is to bite one’s tongue, meaning to remain silent when provoked—literally, to hold it between one’s teeth so as to suppress speaking. Shakespeare had it in Henry VI, Part 2 (1.1): “So Yorke must sit, and fret, and bite his tongue.” See also hold one's tongue.
The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer Copyright © 2013 by Christine Ammer