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)

1. (of an animal) To vocalize loudly.
   1. (of a dog or other canine) To bark; to howl, bay.

      The hounds gave tongue as they scented the fox nearby.

      • 1778, Gregory Lewis Way, Learning at a Loss, or The Amours of Mr. Pedant and Miss Hartley, London: for the author, Volume 2, p. 150,^[1]

        He never goes by my Kennel but the Dogs give tongue;

      • 1849, Currer Bell [pseudonym; Charlotte Brontë], chapter 15, in Shirley. A Tale. […], volumes (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Smith, Elder and Co., […], →OCLC:

        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.

      • 1913, Peter B. Kyne, The Three Godfathers, New York: George H. Doran, p. 68,^[2]

        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.

      • 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; […]

   2. (of a bird) To cry.
      • 1919, Henry De Vere Stacpoole, The Beach of Dreams, Toronto: S. B. Gundy, Part 1, Chapter 6, p. 65,^[3]

        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!

2. (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, p. 88,^[4]

     […] the bugles gave tongue jubilantly:

   • 1899, Alice Dunbar Nelson, “The Goodness of Saint Rocque” in The Goodness of St. Rocque and Other Stories,^[5]

     There was a hoarse, rusty little bell on the gate that gave querulous tongue as she pushed it open.

   • 1917, Rafael Sabatini, The Snare, Chapter 1, p. 20,^[6]

     From the belfry of the little church a bell suddenly gave tongue upon a frantic, hurried note that spoke unmistakably of alarm.

   • 1918, Gilbert Frankau, “The Song of the Gunner-Dead” in The Judgement of Valhalla, London: Chatto & Windus, p. 16,^[7]

     […] guns gave tongue and breech-blocks swung

     And palms rammed home the shell.

3. (of a person) To vocalize audibly.

   Synonyms: call out, cry out

   • 1903, P. G. Wodehouse, “Harrison’s Slight Error” in Tales of St. Austin’s, London: A. & C. Black, 1923, p. 45,^[8]

     His sympathetic school-fellows grasped the full humour of the situation as one man, and gave tongue once more in chorus.

   • 1912, Saki, “The Quest” in The Chronicles of Clovis, London: John Lane, The Bodley Head, p. 119,^[9]

     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.

   • 1978, Lawrence Durrell, Livia, New York: Viking, 1979, Chapter 6, p. 198,^[10]

     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.

4. To give expression to (something); to express.

   She felt unable to give tongue to her feelings.

   • 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.

   • 1900, Sabine Baring-Gould, “Crazy Jane” in In a Quiet Village, London: Isbister, p. 314,^[11]

     Mrs. Thacker had a fretful, irritable temper, and the presence of Crazy Jane furnished her with an occasion for giving tongue to her annoyance […]

   • 1979, William Styron, Sophie’s Choice, New York: Bantam, 1980, Chapter 11, p. 378,^[12]

     God, if she only knew what manner of sugarplums danced in my head when she gave tongue to such delicious conceits.