lay one's tongue to

Meaning: (slang,idiomatic,somewhatdated)Tosay; toname; tothink ofto say.1864May –1865November,Charles Dickens, chapter 8, inOur Mutual Friend.[…], volume I, London:Chapman and Hall,[…], published1865,→OCLC:Mr Lightwood, I will now name to you, that on behalf of the poor dear boy, me and Mrs Boffin have stood out against the old man times out of number, till he has called us every name he couldlay his tongue to.1885,William Dean Howells, chapter 20, inThe Rise of Silas Lapham‎[1]:He’s been dabbling in every sort of fool thing you canlay your tongue to,—wild-cat stocks, patent-rights, land speculations, oil claims,—till he’s run through about everything.1888,Charlotte Riddell, “The Last of Squire Ennismore”, in David Marcus, editor,The Poolbeg Book of Irish Ghost Stories‎[2], Dublin: Poolbeg, published1990, page255:He was a terrible man. You couldn’tlay your tongue toa wickedness he had not been in the forefront of—drinking, duelling, gambling,—all manner of sins had been meat and drink to him since he was a boy almost.1905–1906, Arthur Conan Doyle, chapter 17, inSir Nigel, London:Smith, Elder & Co.,[…], published January 1906,→OCLC:Your face I have seen, and your coat-armor also, young sir, though I cannotlay my tongue toyour name.1923,D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, chapter 12, inKangaroo, London:Martin Secker[…],→OCLC,page262:Canaille!Canaglia!Schweinerei!He loathed them in all the languages he couldlay his tongue to.1953,Shirley Barker, chapter 9, inFire and the Hammer,‎[3], New York: Crown:Now it’s none of my business[…]to try to make a man’s mind up for him between two girls. His politics I’ll lecture him on while my breath lasts, but the other thing I won’tlay my tongue to.

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