civil tongue | Idiomator

Meaning: (idiomatic)Apolitemanner of speaking.1855,Charlotte M. Yonge, chapter 3, inThe Lances Of Lynwood:"[T]here would not have been the least offence had the youth only possessed acivil tongue."1915,Zane Grey, chapter 4, inThe Lone Star Ranger:"Mister Duane," began Bosomer, in low, stinging tones, "I happen to be Luke Stevens's side-pardner. . . . An' I want the hoss an' them guns," he shouted."You or anybody else can have them, for all I care. I just fetched them in. But the pack is mine," replied Duane. "And say, I befriended your pard. If you can't use acivil tongueyou'd better cinch it."2014, Michael Fitzalan,The Gunpowder Plot and Markham,→ISBN,page30:They sang "good morrow" in reply, making sure they addressed him with acivil tongue; they, after all, wanted a tip for their good service.

Examples:

EN: Now remember what I said, the civil tongue, or else...
ES: Recuerde que una lengua quieta es mejor que muerta.
EN: I'll thank you to keep a civil tongue in your head.
ES: Te agradecería que fueras más respetuoso.
ES: Le agradeceré que modere su lenguaje.
EN: I'll thank you to keep a civil tongue in your head, not in mine.
ES: Te agradecería que sujetaras esa lengua.
EN: Of course I doubt, and I ask you to keep a civil tongue in your head, Dr. Mortimer.
ES: ¡Claro que dudo! Y le ruego que modere su lenguaje, Dr. Mortimer.
EN: Look, my good man, keep a civil tongue in your head. Huh.
ES: No sea grosero, amigo.
EN: It's a pity she can't keep a civil tongue in her head.
ES: Lástima que no sea más civilizada.
EN: Keep a civil tongue. You hadn't finish cleaning up that slop.
ES: Guarde su civilizada lengua dentro de la boca y acabe de limpiar.
EN: - Keep a civil tongue or I'll run you in.
ES: ¡No grites o lo tirare!
EN: - Nobody's ever entered a rose against Lady Beldon since she started 30 years ago. Keep a civil tongue or I'll be doing my shopping in Meekham after this!
ES: - Nadie ha presentado una rosa contra Lady Beldon desde que empezó hace 30 años. ¡Cuide esa boca o haré mis compras en Meekham después de esto!
EN: Mr. Lester, I'll thank you to keep a civil tongue in your head.
ES: Sr. Lester, le agradeceré que use un lenguaje civilizado.
EN: - You keep a civil tongue in your head!
ES: ¡Negrero!
EN: Ah... keep a civil tongue in your head!
ES: No seas maleducada.
EN: Keep a civil tongue in your head.
ES: "¿Por qué no metes tu lengua en la boca?".
EN: - Keep a civil tongue - in your head, woman.
ES: Sé cortés al hablar, mujer.
EN: You keep a civil tongue in your unprepossessing face.
ES: Cuida tus modales y quita tu cara desabrida de mi vista.

Note: the examples for non latin scripts have a high likelihood of mistakes, we do not own any of this data and it is sourced from Wiktionary, the NLLB database and Opensubtitles. Please help us improve this by contributing correct examples. We will be working to fix this issue over time however it is a bigger issue due to the the difficulties in dealing with non latin scripts and grammatical structures(non-romantic/european languages have lower resources as well ).