Most writers have used adjectives for the word 'tongue' in its figurative meaning i.e. language. A tongue may be described-- its color, coating, smell, swollen etc. only in homoeopathic or medical journals and case sheets. Rarely do these find use in literary works.
Some adjectives for the 'tongue' have been found in recipe and cookery books to describe a preparation made from the tongue of an animal.
Here is a box which lists out some adjectival phrases which describe the 'tongue'
in different meanings. The phrases used in setting the multiple choice questions test are marked in Italics.. Pl. try to fill in the blanks in question Nos. 641 to 650 using the adjectives and note them down on a small paper slip. Thereafter, you can compare them with the key: Click
LIST OF ADJECTIVES USED IN DESCRIBING 'TONGUE'
Barbarous tongue, base tongue (John Dryden), boiled tongue, bleeding tongue, brownish tongue
Deviled tongue
Earthly tongue (William Shakespeare)
Faltering tongue, forgotten tongue, foul tongue, free tongue, fresh tongue (cookery)
Gentle tongue, Godlike tongue, good tongue, great tongue
Hearty tongue, humble tongue
Iron tongue
Little tongue, long tongue, loose tongue, loving tongue
Mother tongue, musculous tongue
National tongue, native tongue
Oriental tongue
Pink tongue, poisoned tongue, pompous tongue, primitive tongue (Andrew Dickson White)
Red tongue, respectful tongue
Serpant's tongue, scolding tongue, servile tongue, Shepherd's tongue (William Shakespeare), shrewd tongue, spitefullest tongue, strange tongue
Threatening tongue
Unbriddled tongue, uncouth tongue, unknown tongue
Vernacular tongue (Tobias Smollett), Vulgar tongue
Wagging tongue
641. She is not old, she is not young,
The woman with the _________ Tongue,
The haggard cheek, the hungering eye,
The poisoned words that wildly fly,
The famished face, the fevered hand, ...
[Burton Egbert Stevenson in his poem 'The woman with the '_______'s Tongue'].
642. You have enough, go pretty Maid, stand close,
And use that ______ tongue, with a little more temper.
[Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher in their poem 'The humorous lieutinent'].
643. Retire; you must not yet see Antony.
He who began this mischief,
'Tis just he tempt the danger; let him clear you:
And, since he offered you his _______ tongue,
To gain a poor precarious life from Caesar,
Let him expose that fawning eloquence,
[John Dryden, in his poem 'All for Love'].
644. But if my tongue is not to wag, whatever shall I
do to earn my dinner? Why, that you shall quite easily, if with your _______ tongue you do not try to utter things unutterable.
[Xenophon in his play 'The Symposium'].
645. This, said Bacbuc, comes of not considering with ourselves, or
understanding the motions of the _________ tongue, when the drink glides on it in its way to the stomach. Tell me, noble strangers, are your throats
lined, paved, or enamelled, as formerly was that of Pithyllus, nicknamed
Theutes, that you can have missed the taste, relish, and flavour of this
divine liquor? [Francois Rabelais in his 'Gargantua and Pantagruel'].
646. Katte is greatly flattered by the Prince's confidence; even brags of it in society, with his foolish _____ tongue. Poor youth, he is of dissolute ways; has plenty of it unwise intellect," little of the "wise" kind; and is still under the years of discretion. [Thomas Carlyle in his 'History of Friedrich II of Prussia'].
647. SOCRATES: To say that names which we do not understand are of foreign origin; and this is very likely the right answer, and something of this
kind may be true of them; but also the original forms of words may have been lost in the lapse of ages; names have been so twisted in all manner of ways, that I should not be surprised if the old language when compared with that now in use would appear to us to be a _________ tongue. [B. Jowett in his translation of 'Cratylus by Plato'].
648. And flint-tipped arrow each with ________ tongue,--
Thus does the Red man stalk to death his foe,
And sighting him strings silently his bow,
Takes his unerring aim, and straight and true
[E. Pauline Johnson in his poem 'Flint and Feather'].
649. Here, in this death of St. Livinius, the executioner is shown in the act of presenting to a dog with pincers the ________ tongue that he has just cut out of the mouth of the dying priest. [Joseph E. Morris in his book 'Beautiful Europe - Belgium'].
650. Plucking at his bloody lips
With his trembling finger-tips;
Choking in a dreadful way
As if he would something say
In that _______ tongue of his. . . .
Oh, how horrible Death is!
[Robert W. Service in his 'Rhymes of a Red Cross man'.
