hold one's tongue

Idioms  

1. Also,. Keep quiet, remain silent, as in If you don't hold your tongue you'll have to go outside, or Jenny kept her peace about the wedding. The idiom with tongue uses hold in the sense of “restrain,” while the others use hold and keep in the sense of “preserve.” Chaucer used the first idiom in The Tale of Melibus (c. 1387): “Thee is better hold thy tongue still, than for to speak.” The variant appears in the traditional wedding service, telling anyone who knows that a marriage should not take place to “speak now or forever hold your peace.” [First half of 1300s] Also see keep quiet.

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

hold one's tongue

At least this once, one could hold one's tongue.

From Time Magazine Archive

Well, well," the other broke off impatiently; "no doubt it is better to hold one's tongue.

From Bonnie Prince Charlie : a Tale of Fontenoy and Culloden by Henty, G. A. (George Alfred)

The vast moral importance of being able to hold one's tongue, the golden resources of silence, should be emphasized by the teacher.

From The Moral Instruction of Children by Adler, Felix

But I say again, as I said at first: if one could only hold one's tongue as to what one sees, one would be the better for it.

From Pepper & Salt or, Seasoning for Young Folk by Pyle, Howard

A chaplain therefore had his trials, but in spite of them it was the policy of wisdom not to show resentment and to hold one's tongue.

From The Great War As I Saw It by Scott, Frederick George

Related Words

• cut off
• gag
• muffle
• mute
• muzzle
• quash
• quell
• squelch
• stifle
• subdue
• suppress