acid tonguen.
/ˌasɪd ˈtʌŋ/, U.S. /ˌæsəd ˈtəŋ/ A sharp or severe manner of speaking, esp. one characterized by cutting or acerbic remarks. Cf. acid adj. 1b.
ΚΠ
1854 J. W. Kaye Jerningham: Story I. 170 Returned from a late dinner,..[he] would fain slip to the side of his better half without waking her watchful heart but acid tongue.
1909 Living Age 9 Jan. 88/1 He was a clever man with an acid tongue, a faithful worshipper at the fetish shrine of ‘scholarship’.
1962 C. M. Turnbull Forest People viii. 148 Masisi was in one of his worst tempers and lashed out with an acid tongue at anyone foolish enough to try and talk to him.
2007 Bristol Evening Post (Nexis) 2 Aug. 72 Her sharp wit and acid tongue would kill any daring heckler's attempts stone dead.
Derivatives
ˌacid-ˈtongued adj.
ΚΠ
1903 J. C. Tarver tr. G. Hanotaux Contemp. France I. i. 55 An acid-tongued Orleanist was saying..that M. Thiers had tricked his former friends.
2005 Blender July 88 (caption) [They] presented themselves as cruel, witty, acid-tongued songwriters.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2009; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
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n.1854