HOLD ONE'S TONGUE Definition & Meaning

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hold one's tongue

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Idioms and Phrases

Also, hold or keep one's peace . Keep quiet, remain silent, as in If you don't hold your tongue you'll have to go outside , or Jenny kept her peace about the wedding . The idiom with tongue uses hold in the sense of “restrain,” while the others use hold and keep in the sense of “preserve.” Chaucer used the first idiom in The Tale of Melibus (c. 1387): “Thee is better hold thy tongue still, than for to speak.” The variant appears in the traditional wedding service, telling anyone who knows that a marriage should not take place to “speak now or forever hold your peace.” [First half of 1300s] Also see keep quiet .

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Example Sentences

Examples have not been reviewed.

The vast moral importance of being able to hold one's tongue, the golden resources of silence, should be emphasized by the teacher.

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And then, seeing these things, people want a—well, better hold one's tongue!

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That night I spake to Sonnlein kindly but firmly, reminding him how poorly it accorded with his manhood's estate to indulge in such levity; that even if he could not always agree with the hair-splitting speculations of our worthy superintendent, it were surely wiser to hold one's tongue lest that unruly member poison all our peace.

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Oh, there's plenty of mystery about it all; and, once more, it's better to hold one's tongue!

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At least this once, one could hold one's tongue.

From Time Magazine Archive

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

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