Tongue-tied

Quick meaning: Tongue-tied is an adjective meaning Prevented from or unable to express oneself clearly or fluently, or freely; at a loss for words, speechless.

Meaning

Prevented from or unable to express oneself clearly or fluently, or freely; at a loss for words, speechless.

More Meanings

1. Reluctant to speak up; reserved, reticent.
2. Physically unable to speak; dumb, mute.
3. simple past and past participle of tongue-tie
4. (pathology) Having tongue-tie or ankyloglossia (“a congenital oral anomaly in which the lingual frenulum (a membrane connecting the underside of the tongue to the floor of the mouth) is unusually short and thick, decreasing mobility of the tongue and affecting eating, speech, etc.”).

Example Sentences

Tongue-tied or short of breath / Don't even try

My toung-tide Muſe in manners holds her ſtill, / While comments of your praiſe richly compil'd, / Reſerue their Character with goulden quill, / And precious phraſe by all the Muſes fil'd.

I was all this while chafing at the part I played, and sitting tongue-tied between shame and merriment; but somehow at this I could hold in no longer, and bade Alan let me be, for I was better already.

And he [Aesop] was not only Unhappy in the moſt ſcandalous Figure of a Man that ever was heard of; but he was in a manner Tongue-Ty'd too, by ſuch an Impediment in his ſpeech, that People could very hardly underſtand what he ſaid.

Synonyms for tongue-tied

Depending on context, synonyms include inarticulate, unarticulate.

Related Words

Related dictionary entries include inarticulate, unarticulate, dumb, mute, dummy, silent.

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