tongue-tie
Americannoun
verb (used with object)
noun
Etymology
Origin of tongue-tie
First recorded in 1545–55; back formation from tongue-tied
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
An estimated 7% of babies are diagnosed with a condition called tongue-tie, in which the connection between the tongue and the floor of the mouth is too strong and limits tongue movement.
From Science Daily ● Apr. 29, 2024
Ms. Henstrom is part of a booming industry of lactation consultants and dentists that aggressively markets the procedures, even for babies that have no signs of tongue-tie and despite a small risk of serious complications.
From New York Times ● Feb. 15, 2024
Additional training is provided which includes recognising tongue-tie, its treatments and support.
From BBC ● Feb. 12, 2022
Some babies with the condition struggle to latch on to the breast, but awareness of it as an infant feeding issue can be poor, and tongue-tie can be hard to spot.
From BBC ● Feb. 12, 2022
The child was taken to a physician who operated and corrected the tongue-tie.
From Civics and Health by Allen, William H.
Titled Shy, it describes how Rapp became tongue-tied around the British musician when they toured together in 2023.
From BBC ● Jul. 24, 2025
Still others remained tongue-tied about the “quandary” at hand, as Florida Sen. Marco Rubio put it.
From Slate ● Feb. 27, 2024
Giamatti watchers may have a hard time imagining the actor tongue-tied.
From New York Times ● Jan. 7, 2024
Speech production is a complex neural phenomenon that has left researchers explaining it tongue-tied.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 11, 2023
On the contrary: He planted himself so impressively in the doorway that Meggie was instantly tongue-tied.
From "Inkheart" by Cornelia Funke
Still, Americans are indebted to Canadians when it comes to this tongue-tying fruit.
From Time ● Aug. 21, 2014
Americans, he believed, should go wherever they wanted to go, although he said so in a potentially tongue-tying sentence: "Let us go on whithersoever our destiny may lead us."
From Salon ● Feb. 21, 2011
Best of all though may be the new woodchuck spot, once and for all answering the age old tongue-tying question "how much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?"
From Washington Post ● Oct. 7, 2010
But it also has other attributes prized by veteran excuse makers: it's simple, requiring no complicated, tongue-tying explanation, universally understood, vaguely virtuous and hard to check.
From Time Magazine Archive
Poor Peg tried again at the absurd tongue-tying name.
From Peg O' My Heart by Manners, J. Hartley
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
