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

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

From Time Magazine Archive

Anyhow, it seemed quite impossible to hold one's tongue that afternoon.

From My Young Days by Konewka, Paul

Anyway, one can't hold one's tongue when one has a feeling, a tangible feeling, that one might be a help if only....

From Crime and Punishment by Garnett, Constance

True, one must be able to hold one's tongue when necessary, and Mrs. Paaschen, who is so inquisitive, is really not at all according to my taste.

From The German Classics of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Volume 12 by Various

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

Related Words

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