Word.ws English Dictionary

guard one's tongue

guard one's tongue verb: to be careful in what one says; to avoid divulging information or speaking in a way considered to be inappropriate or offensive.

Verb

guard one's tongue (third-person singular simple present guards one's tongue, present participle guarding one's tongue, simple past and past participle guarded one's tongue)

  1. To be careful in what one says; to avoid divulging information or speaking in a way considered to be inappropriate or offensive.
    • […] though I scorn to guard my Tongue, as hoping ’twill never offend willingly; yet I can, with much adoe, hold it, when I have a great mind to say a thousand things I know will be taken in an ill sence.1696, Aphra Behn, “Love-Letters to a Gentleman,” Letter 3, in All the Histories and Novels Written by the Late Ingenious Mrs. Behn, London: Samuel Briscoe, p. 47
    • […] of course it is a little out of character to call upon me to guard my tongue, when it is the privilege of a freeman to speak his mind […]1793, John Trusler, chapter 36, in Life; or, The Adventures of William Ramble, Esq., volume 3, London: for the author, page 86

Forms of guard one's tongue

third-person singular presentguards one's tongue
present participleguarding one's tongue
past participleguarded one's tongue
pastguarded one's tongue

Questions about guard one's tongue

What does guard one's tongue mean?
Guard one's tongue means to be careful in what one says; to avoid divulging information or speaking in a way considered to be inappropriate or offensive.
What part of speech is guard one's tongue?
Guard one's tongue is a verb.
What is the past tense of guard one's tongue?
The past tense of guard one's tongue is guarded one's tongue.

Words near guard one's tongue in the dictionary

  1. guard mounting
  2. guard mountings
  3. guard of honor
  4. guard of honour
  5. guard of vambrace
  6. guard one's tongue
  7. guard post
  8. guard posts
  9. guard rail
  10. guard rails
  11. guard ship

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: guard one's tongue (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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