barbed tongue

barbed tongue

A tendency to speak in a malicious or highly critical manner. Be prepared for your annual review—the boss tends to have a barbed tongue when going over your shortcomings. The mean old lady who lived on the corner made a reputation among us kids with her barbed tongue.
See also: tongue
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.
See also:
  • sharp tongue
  • spooked
  • speak ill of
  • speak ill of (someone or something)
  • speak/think ill of somebody
  • a piece of work
  • piece of work
  • piece of work, a
  • a cold piece of work
  • leer
References in periodicals archive
"I must say, after they smashed up our team coach in the quarter-final, I derived as much pleasure from that as I did from winning the league!" But United didn't escape unscathed from Gallagher's barbed tongue and he particularly enjoyed Mourinho's 'respect, respect, respect' rant after their 3-0 home defeat by Spurs on Monday.
What else would you expect from the man with the barbed tongue and twinkle in his eye?
Soon the bird will reach its long barbed tongue into the hole and pull out squirming bugs.
Known for her barbed tongue, Morales gave Almario a piece of advice that drew another wave of laughter from the crowd: 'Have your cell phone changed if you can't get a good signal.'
Ann Fleischli: "a Madison activist and lifelong friend of the underdog, who brought an intellectual persistence and a barbed tongue to such issues as poverty, the environment and development, ..."
They may have limited flexibility to reach all parts of their body or may be unable or unwilling to use their barbed tongue to evenly distribute the natural oils in their fur.
The feisty drag queen propelled Paul to national fame with her barbed tongue and sharp wit.
Howard Kendall had occasionally been on the receiving end of Bally's barbed tongue, but it didn't stop him trying the same tactic as Catterick when he became Blues boss.
Luckily for me the person on the end of her barbed tongue today appears to be former Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard.
The 47-year-old is joining Desperate Housewives as Renee Perry, a rich and successful college friend with a barbed tongue - a 'frenemy' - of Lynette Scavo, played by Felicity Huffman.
The swishly attractive Beautiful People certainly has a barbed tongue as it professes love for all that is shallow and glossy in the modern world.
He opened the View in November to an appreciative if tiny bunch of aficionados with an exhibition titled, perhaps with barbed tongue in cheek, The Ship of Fools and has since been if anything lively and extremely topical in his broad reaching choice of artist, as well as the range of jewelry and ceramics on show.
If I see a barbed tongue even for a moment, and see fluent words choppy, and see a weak person in the clutches of weakness, my heart burns for Rudaki,(2) it burns for life today.
Birds with a barbed tongue, such as woodpeckers, can become trapped by their beaks.
SHE'S TV's Queen of Mean and no one is safe from her barbed tongue - not even her own teenage daughter.