give tongue

give tongue

To bark or cry out, as of a dog in pursuit. Once the dog gave tongue, we knew we had found the evidence we'd been looking for.
See also: give, tongue
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.
See also:
  • bark
  • hunt
  • dog eat dog
  • dog-eat-dog
  • a dog-eat-dog world
  • (as) sick as a dog
  • sick as a dog
  • be (as) sick as a dog
  • my dog
  • my dogg
References in classic literature
Kim felt these things, though he could not give tongue to his feelings, and so contented himself with buying peeled sugar-cane and spitting the pith generously about his path.
Kim
Strike first and then give tongue. By thy very carelessness they know that thou art a man.
Jungle Book
He will come up the river and will give tongue about the beatings."
Actions and Reactions
"By gum, master Gingnutt, such bold ideas as you give tongue to do make my own pamphlets seem like so much chopped offal," exclaimed Tom Paine, who also happened to be on board.
Colonial Gingrichburg
Only when the question of the Muslim veil-wearers cropped up did Dr Rowan Williams give tongue to his belief - quite rightly, as it happens - that there should be no problem with the faithful proclaiming their religious allegiance.
Why is this man so slow to defend Christianity?
Coplans, who is notoriously subject to distraction, since almost anything will catch his full attention, has in a few of these writings (the prose is smooth, the thoughts jagged) performed what some see as the critic's first task: to give tongue to the wordless, beginning the socialization of new art through language.
Provocations: Writings by John Coplans
When a breeze stirs the leaves, they should, as Virgil wrote, "give tongue to the wind."
C'mon in, the shade's fine: in search of the perfect tree