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:
Her son had a tongue-tie, a condition where the strip of skin connecting the tongue to the mouth is tighter than usual, making it almost impossible for him to latch on to her breast.
From BBC ● Aug. 10, 2024
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
Reporters traveled to Boise, Idaho, and observed tongue-tie surgery in Manhattan.
From New York Times ● Dec. 18, 2023
After a short assessment it was confirmed Lily had a posterior tongue-tie and not long afterwards, it was snipped.
From BBC ● Feb. 12, 2022
Bolting of food or overeating results in vomiting and gas, and thus interferes with normal nursing, as also may tongue-tie.
From The Mother and Her Child by Sadler, William S.
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
Speech production is a complex neural phenomenon that has left researchers explaining it tongue-tied.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 11, 2023
“And not just Boyle Heights, but the whole district. It’s a pot of mixtures ...” she continued, then stopped, tongue-tied.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 27, 2023
You couldn’t be tongue-tied nor catch a case of lockjaw, or Tansy would give you an F. She was quick with her F’s.
From "The Teacher’s Funeral" by Richard Peck
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.
