tongue-fence. Ibid. (1671), Samson Agon., 404. With blandish parlies, feminine assaults, Tongue-batteries, she surceaseth not, day nor night, To storm me. Ibid., 1180. Tongue-doughty giant.
1679. Dryden, Pref. Troil. and Cress. Let his clack be set a-going, and he shall tongue it as impetuously and as loudly as the arrantest hero of the play. Ibid. (1697), Iliad, i. 336. Tongue-*valiant hero, vaunter of thy might, In threats the foremost but the lag in fight. Ibid., Grounds of Criticism. Let his clack be set a-going, and he shall tongue it as impetuously as the arrantest hero of the play.
c. 1696. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Tongue-pad, a smooth, Glib-tongued, insinuating Fellow.
1709-11. Tatler [Century]. She who was a celebrated wit at London is, in that dull part of the world, called a tongue-pad.
d. 1719. Addison, Pretty Disaffection. Irritated from time to time by these tongue-warriors.
1725. Bailey, Erasmus, i. 116. Don't be sparing of your speech with one that is full of Tongue.
1740. Richardson, Pamela, i. 205. God forgive me, but I had a sad lie at my tongue's end.
d. 1716. Burns, Election Ballads, ii. An' there will be black-lippit Johnnie, The tongue o' the trump to them a'.
1814. Austen, Mansfield Park, viii. Mrs. Norris thought it an excellent plan, and had it at her tongue's end, and was on the point of proposing it when Mrs. Grant spoke.
1843. Dickens, Martin Chuzzlewit, xxix. It was on the tip of the boy's tongue to relate what had followed, but he . . . checked himself.
1851. Carlyle, Life of Sterling, v. In all manner of brilliant utterance and tongue-fence, I have hardly known his fellow.
1859. Reade, Love Me Little, x. Hum! Eve, wasn't your tongue a little too long for your teeth just now? Ibid. (1861), Cloister and Hearth, lii. She would stand timidly aloof out of tongue-shot.
1862. Lowell, Biglow Papers, 2 S. iii. He jes' ropes in your tonguey chaps an' reg'lar ten-inch bores, An' lets 'em play at Congress, ef they'll du it with closed doors.
1866. Eliot, Felix Holt, xx. If a man takes to tongue-work, it's all over with him.
1876. Tennyson, Harold, v. 1. The simple, silent, selfless man Is worth a world of tonguesters. Ibid., Northern Cobbler. Then Sally she turn'd a tongue-*banger, an' räated me.
1899. Wyndham, Queen's Service, 74. Beer has a marvellous effect in loosing tongues, and although there was not much . . . tongue-wagging, songs and toasts were very numerous.
To tongue a woman, verb. phr. (venery).—See Velvet.
Tonic, subs. (common).—1. A
drink: spec. an appetiser.
2. (old).—A halfpenny: see Rhino (Grose).
Tonish (Tony, etc.). See Bon
Ton.
Tonkabout, subs. (Charterhouse
and Durham).—'Skying' a ball;
to tonk = to drive a ball into the
air: cricket.
Tonner, subs. (colloquial and
nautical).—Usually in combination:
e.g. a ten-tonner, etc.
(of floating bottoms): cf.
twenty-thousand pounder
(= a heiress: Farquhar, Recruiting
Officer).
1889. Scientific American [Century]. Not so long ago a 1000 ton schooner was considered enormous. Now a 1500 tonner is scarcely remarked.
Tony, subs. (common).—A simpleton:
see Buffle (B. E.).
1668. Dryden, All for Love, Prol., 15. In short, a pattern and companion fit For all the keeping tonies of the pit.
Tonygle, verb. (Old Cant).—To
copulate: see Ride. [Thus
given by Harman. Probably
niggle (q.v.), the 'to' being the
old and long obsolete intensive
verbal affix, a form which survives
Biblically: see Judges ix. 53.]
