tongue depressor

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noun

a broad, thin piece of wood used by doctors to hold down the patient's tongue during an examination of the mouth and throat.

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Also called tongue blade .

Origin of tongue depressor

First recorded in 1870–75

Words nearby tongue depressor

tongue, tongue-and-groove joint, tongue cover, tongue crib, tongued, tongue depressor, tonguefish, tongue graft, tongue-in-cheek, tongue-lash, Tongue River

How to use tongue depressor in a sentence

After the release of the trailer for the special last week, TLC received a requisite and perhaps well-deserved tongue-lashing.
Your Husband Is Definitely Gay: TLC’s Painful Portrait of Mormonism|Samantha Allen|January 1, 2015|DAILY BEAST
Abramson, biting her tongue, was widely portrayed in rival outlets as classily above the fray.
The Bloodiest Media Coups of 2014|Lloyd Grove|December 22, 2014|DAILY BEAST
The second is strangled tongue disease, the English inability to express real feelings in conversation.
Why Can’t Movies Capture Genius?|Clive Irving|December 14, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Language was no barrier; just about every tongue on the planet was babbling away, caught up in the elaborate mystique of a cult.
Sherlock Holmes Vs. Jack the Ripper|Clive Irving|November 16, 2014|DAILY BEAST

Sata, who was known as King Cobra because of his sharp tongue, was thought to have been seriously ill for some time.
Democratic Africa Gets Its First White Leader|Nico Hines|October 29, 2014|DAILY BEAST
“Perhaps you do not speak my language,” she said in Urdu, the tongue most frequently heard in Upper India.
The Red Year|Louis Tracy
Now first we shall want our pupil to understand, speak, read and write the mother tongue well.
The Salvaging Of Civilisation|H. G. (Herbert George) Wells
The flute and the psaltery make a sweet melody, but a pleasant tongue is above them both.
The Bible, Douay-Rheims Version|Various
Each sentence came as if torn piecemeal from his unwilling tongue; short, jerky phrases, conceived in pain and delivered in agony.
Raw Gold|Bertrand W. Sinclair
If she have a tongue that can cure, and likewise mitigate and shew mercy: her husband is not like other men.
The Bible, Douay-Rheims Version|Various

Medical definitions for tongue depressor

tongue depressor

A thin blade for pressing down the tongue during a medical examination of the mouth and throat; a spatula.