Meaning & use
biting my tongue
Last updated
“biting my tongue” is a form of “bite one's tongue”.
Meaning
phraseidiom
stopping yourself from saying what you are thinking, usually to avoid trouble or upsetting someone
Grammar: Used as a continuous action: 'I was biting my tongue.' The possessive pronoun changes with the subject: 'biting his tongue', 'biting their tongues'.
Patterns
- biting one's tongue
- bite one's tongue about something
I was biting my tongue during the meeting because I didn't want to criticize my boss in public.
She kept biting her tongue while her mother-in-law gave advice about the wedding.
He was biting his tongue so hard that he almost couldn't stay quiet.
Common combinations
- keep biting one's tongue
- I had to keep biting my tongue all through dinner.
- bite one's tongue about something
- She bit her tongue about the mistake he made.
- be biting one's tongue
- You could see he was biting his tongue.
Synonyms and how they differ
- hold one's tongue
- This means to stay silent, often for a longer time, not just to stop one comment.
- keep quiet
- This is more general and does not suggest that you are stopping yourself from saying something specific.
Opposites
Word family
- bite one's tongue phrase
- The base form of the idiom, used in the present or as an infinitive.
Commonly confused: biting my tongue or tongue-tied?
biting my tongue vs tongue-tied
Tongue-tied means unable to speak because you are nervous or shy, not choosing to stay silent.
Practice
During the argument, she was ______ to avoid saying something she would regret.
Choose one answer.
'Biting her tongue' is the correct idiom for stopping yourself from speaking. 'Keeping her tongue' is not a standard phrase; the idiom is 'holding her tongue'.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “biting my tongue”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.