Word.ws English Dictionary

the rough side of one's tongue

the rough side of one's tongue noun: angry words, harsh criticism.

Noun

the rough side of one's tongue (uncountable)

  1. Angry words, harsh criticism.
    • But let them, if they plague thee long,
      Once feel the rough side of thy tongue:1797, Thomas Bridges, A Burlesque Translation of Homer, 4th edition, London: G.G. and J. Robinson, Book 6, p. 354
    • […] Louis was then in no humour to hear Charles’s texts and Latin sentiments; he had his back to the wall, the future of France was at stake; and if all the old men in the world had crossed his path, they would have had the rough side of his tongue like Charles of Orleans.1876, Robert Louis Stevenson, “Charles of Orleans,” Chapter 4, in Familiar Studies of Men and Books, 1882
    Synonyms:
    piece of one's mind, rebuke, reprimand, telling off, tongue-lashing

Synonyms of the rough side of one's tongue

Questions about the rough side of one's tongue

What does the rough side of one's tongue mean?
The rough side of one's tongue means angry words, harsh criticism.
What part of speech is the rough side of one's tongue?
The rough side of one's tongue is a noun.

Words near the rough side of one's tongue in the dictionary

  1. The Ridgeway
  2. The Risk
  3. the road to hell is paved with good intentions
  4. the Rock
  5. The Rocks
  6. the rough side of one's tongue
  7. the rubber hits the road
  8. the rubber meets the road
  9. The S*n
  10. the same
  11. the same mixture as before

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: the rough side of 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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