Word.ws English Dictionary

tonguey

tonguey adjective: tending to talk a lot; fluent or voluble in speech (generally with an unfavourable connotation).

Adjective

tonguey (comparative tonguier or more tonguey, superlative tonguiest or most tonguey)

  1. Tending to talk a lot; fluent or voluble in speech (generally with an unfavourable connotation).
    • Seeing then he is now so mute, that before was so tonguy […]1608, Philip Woodward, Bels Trial Examined, Doai, Preface
    • “You air a tongue-y person, Gen’ral. For you talk too much, and that’s a fact,” said Scadder. “You speak a-larmingly well in public, but you didn’t ought to go ahead so fast in private. Now!”1844, Charles Dickens, Martin Chuzzlewit, London: Chapman and Hall, Chapter , p. 267
  2. Using many words; containing grandiloquent expressions; marked by rhetorical elegance (generally with an unfavourable connotation).
    • […] personal abuse and tonguy sarcasm are not elements of success in law practice.1885, J. H. Battle, Kentucky: A History of the State, Louisville, KY: F.A. Battey, “Biographical Sketches,” p. 839
    • “I have listened,” he said, “to the talk that Justice Rowan has given us. It’s very fine and tonguey, but it smothers up the facts. […]”1896, F. Hopkinson Smith, Tom Grogan, New York: Grosset & Dunlap, Chapter , p. 186
  3. Manifested by fluent or voluble speech.
    • […] even his tonguey confidence and ingenuousness could glean but little satisfaction from his interviews with the rheumatic and unbelieving old woman.1887, Mary Eleanor Wilkins Freeman, “The Bar Light-House”, in A Humble Romance, and Other Stories, New York: Harper & Brothers, page 182
  4. Involving the tongue.
    • Wully seated himself upon the corner of the kitchen table, from beneath which appeared a dog’s welcoming nose accompanied by a tonguey, tooth-trimmed grin.1918, F. Roney Weir, chapter 13, in Merry Andrew, Boston: Small, Maynard, page 187
    • They take each other’s hands and kiss goodbye, a longish tonguey kiss […]1988, Hanif Kureishi, Sammy and Rosie Get Laid, London: Faber and Faber, page 8
  5. Resembling a tongue.
    • These tonguey bracts or scaly appendages […] never become shorter than the proper cone scales, or so as to be hid from outside view.1882, Albert Kellogg, Forest Trees of California, Sacramento: J.D. Young, “The Noble Silver Fir,” p. 34
    • […] the brain-aura […] crowns the head after the manner of the tonguey flames of a torch.1903, Fred Max, chapter 1, in Soul-Return, Boston: E.H. Bacon, page 21

Noun

tonguey (plural tongueys)

  1. (Australia, UK) An act or an instance of kissing that involves the use of one's tongue.
    • Give me a kiss. No, open your mouth, I want a tonguey.1992, Louis Nowra, Così, Sydney: Currency Press, published 1994, act 2, scene 5, page 86
    • He walked her to her house and received one last lingering Christmas tonguey under the mistletoe that hung above the door.2004, Ben Elton, chapter 20, in Past Mortem, London: Bantam, page 200
    Synonyms:
    French kiss

Examples of tonguey in a sentence

  • those points especially warming to tonguey gossip—the neighboring tavern and country-store1916, Kate Stephens, “Our Country Newspaper: The Genesis of Its Spirit”, in Workfellows in Social Progression, New York: Sturgis & Walton...
  • Fleur leans back against the kitchen table, letting her face be licked by the tonguey vapour of her coffee-cup.2003, Toby Litt, Finding Myself, Penguin, published 2004, page 158:

Synonyms of tonguey

All synonyms of tonguey

Forms of tonguey

Adjective
comparativetonguier
comparativemore tonguey
superlativetonguiest
superlativemost tonguey
alternative formtonguy
Noun
pluraltongueys

Origin of tonguey

From Middle English tungy, tungi, equivalent to tongue + -y. Compare Old English tynġe (“fluent, eloquent, skillful”).

Questions about tonguey

What does tonguey mean?
Tonguey means tending to talk a lot; fluent or voluble in speech (generally with an unfavourable connotation).
How do you use tonguey in a sentence?
those points especially warming to tonguey gossip—the neighboring tavern and country-store
What part of speech is tonguey?
Tonguey can be an adjective or a noun.

Words near tonguey in the dictionary

  1. tonguetied
  2. tonguetip
  3. tonguetips
  4. tongueworm
  5. tongueworms
  6. tonguey
  7. tongueys
  8. tonguier
  9. tonguiest
  10. tonguiness
  11. tonguing

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: tonguey (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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Cite this entry: “tonguey.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/tonguey. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.