Tonguing

noun, verb

noun, verb ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A licking or lapping with the tongue. countable, uncountable

    "Your partner will be so eager to be licked and caressed that your introductory tonguings in this area just won't be enough."

  2. 2
    A technique used with wind instruments to enunciate different notes using the tongue on the reed or mouthpiece. countable, uncountable
  3. 3
    Cutting off strips of blubber in the butchering of a whale. countable, historical, uncountable

    "While there had been four parties operating during 1837, the following season saw a reduction to three stations and one 'tonguing party' that salvaged blubber from the whale carcasses discarded by pelagic whaling vessels."

Verb
  1. 1
    present participle and gerund of tongue form-of, gerund, participle, present

Synonyms

All synonyms
clapperglossalanguagelinguaspitabatis

Example

More examples

"Your partner will be so eager to be licked and caressed that your introductory tonguings in this area just won't be enough."

Related phrases

double-tonguingtriple-tonguingwind instrument

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.