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.
See also: bite, tongue

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

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.
See also: bite, tongue

bite your tongue

make a desperate effort to avoid saying something.
See also: bite, tongue

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 mind
See also: bite, tongue
References in periodicals archive ?
Maggie said: "With a seizure, you can wet yourself and bite your tongue and these were the two facts that they seemed to find most hilarious as I had wet myself and had blood down my front.
Yobs laughed & filmed me having epileptic fit; Seizure sufferer Maggie tells of humiliation
Either bite your tongue and accept or risk losing her and any grandchildren that arrive.
MUM IS RUINING MY MARRIAGE PLANS; Dear Coleen
WELCOME to the real world, Jose, a world where you have to doff your cap, bite your tongue and mind every P and Q.
Football: MACCA - Raging Jose's on the Roman road to ruin.
You either hit the bettors with that kind of information before they dump $700,000 in win-place-show wagers on your horse, which Wygod and trainer Julio Canani did not do, or you bite your tongue.
MULLINS WIDENS GRAY AREA WITH WIN
If your bud has habits that just won't quit, should you bite your tongue or bite her head off?
My BFF bugs me!: BFF has a habit that plucks your every last nerve? Should you speak now or forever hold your peace? (GL Friends)
BITE your tongue until she's not so hung up on her ex.
Dear MIRIAM: I'm more than a pal
When it gets to that point, even if I have to scream it out in my head, I'm going to say, `Steve Saunders, bite your tongue.
SECOND ROUND MEANS SECOND CHANCE
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