Word.ws English Dictionary

watch one's language

watch one's language verb: to be careful about one's speech, in particular the avoidance of foul language.

Verb

watch one's language (third-person singular simple present watches one's language, present participle watching one's language, simple past and past participle watched one's language)

  1. (idiomatic) To be careful about one's speech, in particular the avoidance of foul language.
    • You need to watch your language here. These people are very religious.
    • And I put my hands on her jugs. She goes crazy. She says 'Take your hands off me slimeball!' So I go, 'Rona, watch your language!' And she goes, 'If you wanna have fun with your hands, why don't you pass the time playin' solitaire.'1993, John Lahr, The Manchurian Candidate: A Play [...] From the Novel by Richard Condon, New York, N.Y.: Dramatists Play Service, →ISBN, page 72

Synonyms of watch one's language

Forms of watch one's language

third-person singular presentwatches one's language
present participlewatching one's language
past participlewatched one's language
pastwatched one's language

Questions about watch one's language

What does watch one's language mean?
Watch one's language means to be careful about one's speech, in particular the avoidance of foul language.
What part of speech is watch one's language?
Watch one's language is a verb.
What is the past tense of watch one's language?
The past tense of watch one's language is watched one's language.

Words near watch one's language in the dictionary

  1. watch night
  2. watch nights
  3. watch of the night
  4. watch one's ass
  5. watch one's back
  6. watch one's language
  7. watch one's mouth
  8. watch one's step
  9. watch one's tongue
  10. watch out
  11. watch over

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: watch one's language (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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