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

When the case was put that way it certainly sounded right to hold one's tongue.

From The Eagle's Nest by S. E. Cartwright

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 Frederick George Scott

But then, at such a place as Littlebath, one would have to hold one's tongue altogether.

From The Bertrams by Anthony Trollope

If after the help one has had from you one can't either take care of one's self or simply hold one's tongue, one must renounce all claim to be an object of interest.

From The Ambassadors by Henry James

Related Words

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