hold (one's) tongue

To stay quiet despite wanting to say something If you want to say something rude to my girlfriend, please hold your tongue, all right?

Fig. to refrain from speaking; to refrain from saying something unpleasant. I felt like scolding her, but I held my tongue. Hold your tongue, John. You can't talk to me that way!

Inf. You have said enough!; You have said enough rude things. (See also hold one's tongue.) Bill: You're seeing Tom a lot, aren't you? You must be in love. Jane: Hold your tongue, Bill Franklin! After listening to the tirade against him for nearly four minutes, Tom cried out, "Hold your tongue!"

Also, hold or keep one's peace . Keep quiet, remain silent, as in If you don't hold your tongue you'll have to go outside, or Jenny kept her peace about the wedding. The idiom with tongue uses hold in the sense of "restrain," while the others use hold and keep in the sense of "preserve." Chaucer used the first idiom in The Tale of Melibus (c. 1387): "Thee is better hold thy tongue still, than for to speak." The variant appears in the traditional wedding service, telling anyone who knows that a marriage should not take place to "speak now or forever hold your peace." [First half of 1300s] Also see keep quiet.

If you hold your tongue, you do not speak. Douglas held his tongue, preferring not to speak out on a politically sensitive issue. Note: People sometimes say hold your tongue as an angry way of telling someone to be quiet. `Hold your tongue, woman,' he had warned her furiously.