give tongue

Verb

give tongue (third-person singular simple present gives tongue, present participle giving tongue, simple past gave tongue, past participle given tongue)

1. To bark; to howl, bay.
   • The hounds gave tongue as they scented the fox nearby.
   • He never goes by my Kennel but the Dogs give tongue;1778, Gregory Lewis Way, Learning at a Loss, or The Amours of Mr. Pedant and Miss Hartley, volume 2, London, page 150
2. To cry.
   • 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!1919, Henry De Vere Stacpoole, The Beach of Dreams, Toronto: S. B. Gundy, Part 1, Chapter 6, p. 65
3. To ring out, sound.
   • […] the bugles gave tongue jubilantly:1890, Rudyard Kipling, “The Drums of the Fore and Aft”, in Wee Willie Winkie and Other Stories, Allahabad: A.H. Wheeler, page 88
   • There was a hoarse, rusty little bell on the gate that gave querulous tongue as she pushed it open.1899, Alice Dunbar Nelson, “The Goodness of Saint Rocque”, in The Goodness of St. Rocque and Other Stories
4. To vocalize audibly.
   • His sympathetic school-fellows grasped the full humour of the situation as one man, and gave tongue once more in chorus.1903, P. G. Wodehouse, “Harrison’s Slight Error”, in Tales of St. Austin’s, London: A. & C. Black, published 1923, page 45
   • 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.1912, Saki, “The Quest”, in The Chronicles of Clovis, London: John Lane, The Bodley Head, page 119

   Synonyms:

   call out, cry out

5. To give expression to (something); to express.
   • She felt unable to give tongue to her feelings.
   • 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.1855, Frederick Douglass, chapter 11, in My Bondage and My Freedom. […], New York; Auburn, N.Y.: Miller, Orton & Mulligan […], →OCLC