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Published on: Saying of the Day

Expresiones con la palabra “lengua”

How well do you know the “lengua espanola”? Test your knowledge with these phrases featuring the word “lengua”.

  • Buscarle la lengua a alguien (colloquial): to try to pick a quarrel with sb, be spoiling for a fight/an argument
  • Con la lengua fuera (col): to be out of breath, panting, dog-tired
  • Darle a la lengua (col): to chatter away
  • Estar con/llevar la lengua fuera (col): to be dead beat, to have one’s tongue hanging out
  • Irse de la lengua (col): to let the cat out of the bag, spill the beans, blow the gaff, shoot one’s mouth off (about sth)
  • Las malas lenguas (col): gossip
  • Lengua culta/vulgar (hist): Latin/the vernacular, (registro) educated/common speech
  • Lengua de tierra: spit of land, tongue of land
  • Lengua de trapo (col): baby talk
  • Lengua oficial: official language
  • Lengua viperina/de víbora: evil/sharp/vicious tongue
  • Media lengua: baby talk
  • Morderse la lengua (fig) (col): to bite one’s tongue
  • No morderse la lengua (col): to not mince one’s words
  • No tener lengua (col): to have lost one’s tongue
  • No tener pelos en la lengua (col): to not mince (one’s) words, be out-spoken
  • Sacarle la lengua a alguien (burla): to stick one’s tongue out at sb
  • Soltar la lengua (col): to loosen one’s tongue
  • ¿Te ha comido la lengua el gato? (col): has the cat got your tongue?
  • Tener algo en la punta de la lengua (col) to have sth on the tip of one’s tongue
  • Tener la lengua larga (col): to talk too much
  • Tirar de la lengua (col): (sonsacar) to make someone talk; (provocando) to wind someone up
  • Trabársele la lengua: to get tongue-tied

Source: Diccionario Longman Advanced 2003 (Edición en CD-ROM)