Tongue-in-cheek - Wiktionary

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• 1 English Toggle English subsection
  • 1.1 Alternative forms
  • 1.2 Etymology
  • 1.3 Pronunciation
  • 1.4 Adjective
    • 1.4.1 Translations
  • 1.5 Adverb
  • 1.6 References
  • 1.7 Further reading

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• Discussion

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In other projects Appearance move to sidebar hide From Wiktionary, the free dictionary See also: tongue in cheek

English

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Alternative forms

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• tongue in cheek

Etymology

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This phrase alludes to the facial expression created by putting one's tongue in one's cheek. The term first appeared in print in 1828,[1] but it isn't entirely clear that it was used with the modern, rather than a literal, sense. A later citation from Richard Barham is unambiguous.[2]

Pronunciation

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• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

• Audio (General American):

  (file)

Adjective

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tongue-in-cheek (comparative more tongue-in-cheek, superlative most tongue-in-cheek)

1. (idiomatic) Not intended seriously; jocular or humorous. Synonyms: see Thesaurus:witty He gave a tongue-in-cheek explanation of why the sky was blue, offering a theory about some primordial discount on light blue paint.
   • 2021 December 29, Conrad Landin, “Glasgow Subway: a city institution”, in RAIL, number 947, page 45:It was in this era, too, that author and Scotland the Brave songwriter Cliff Hanley penned The Glasgow Underground, a tongue-in-cheek love letter to the Subway in song.
   • 2025 August 4, Mike Isaac, “A.I. Has Ushered in Silicon Valley’s ‘Hard Tech’ Era”, in The New York Times‎[1], archived from the original on 4 August 2025:The tongue-in-cheek sendup wasn’t far from Silicon Valley’s reality.

Translations

[edit] witty, jocular, humorous

Dutch: met een knipoog French: second degré (fr) German: augenzwinkernd, mit einem Augenzwinkern Greek: αστείος (el) (asteíos), χιουμοριστικός (el) (chioumoristikós) Hungarian: kaján (hu) Indonesian: jenaka (id) Polish: z przymrużeniem oka (pl) Russian: насме́шливый (ru) (nasméšlivyj), лука́вый (ru) (lukávyj), шутливый (ru) (šutlivyj) Spanish: irónico (es), burlón (es), de broma, como chiste Swedish: med glimten i ögat (sv)

Adverb

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tongue-in-cheek (not comparable)

1. (obsolete) With contempt.
2. With irony. He portrayed them tongue-in-cheek as great lawgivers, as Solons.

References

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1. ^ Walter Scott (1828), chapter VIII, in Fair Maid of Perth: “It is true, the fellow who gave this all hail thrust his tongue in his cheek to some scapegraces like himself; […]”
2. ^ Richard Barham (1845), “The Black Mousquetaire”, in The Ingoldsby Legends, page 236: “He examined the face, And the back of the case, / And the young Lady's portrait there, done on enamel, he / "Saw by the likeness was one of the family;" / Cried "Superbe! Magnifique!" / (With his tongue in his cheek)”

Further reading

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• “tongue-in-cheek”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• tongue-in-cheek on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Retrieved from "https://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=tongue-in-cheek&oldid=86742739" Categories:

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