tonguey

Etymology

Definitions

1. 1

   Tending to talk a lot

   Tending to talk a lot; fluent or voluble in speech (generally with an unfavourable connotation).

   • 1608, Philip Woodward, Bels Trial Examined, Doai, Preface, Seeing then he is now so mute, that before was so tonguy […]
   • “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!”
2. 2

   Using many words

   Using many words; containing grandiloquent expressions; marked by rhetorical elegance (generally with an unfavourable connotation).

   • 1885, J. H. Battle, Kentucky: A History of the State, Louisville, KY: F.A. Battey, “Biographical Sketches,” p. 839, […] personal abuse and tonguy sarcasm are not elements of success in law practice.
   • “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. […]”
   • those points especially warming to tonguey gossip—the neighboring tavern and country-store
3. 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.
4. ›+ 3 more definitionsshow fewer

   1. 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.
      • They take each other’s hands and kiss goodbye, a longish tonguey kiss […]
   2. 5

      Resembling a tongue.

      • 1882, Albert Kellogg, Forest Trees of California, Sacramento: J.D. Young, “The Noble Silver Fir,” p. 34, These tonguey bracts or scaly appendages […] never become shorter than the proper cone scales, or so as to be hid from outside view.
      • […] the brain-aura […] crowns the head after the manner of the tonguey flames of a torch.
      • Fleur leans back against the kitchen table, letting her face be licked by the tonguey vapour of her coffee-cup.
   3. 6

      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.
      • He walked her to her house and received one last lingering Christmas tonguey under the mistletoe that hung above the door.

The neighborhood

• neighborglossal
• neighborlingual
• neighbortonguely