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tongue in cheek, with
Idioms and Phrases
Ironically or as a joke, as in Was he speaking with tongue in cheek when he said Sally should run for president? This term probably alludes to the facial expression produced by poking one's tongue in one's cheek, perhaps to suppress a smile. [First half of 1800s]Example Sentences
It's tongue in cheek with my coach Joe Gallagher.
Three months later the paper raised him $10, and he married his high-school girl friend, Sylvia, who rarely accompanies him on his rounds, but keeps him in line with such advice as: "Don't confuse tongue in cheek with foot in mouth."
"One can envisage a transportation system without timetables," says Cooper, tongue in cheek, "with the world's cities linked by tunnels, the departure time universally on the hour, and the arrival time 42.2 minutes later."
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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
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