Meaning of keep a civil tongue in one's head | Babel Free

Definitions

To maintain a polite manner of speaking.

idiomatic

Examples

“"I've had enough of that kind of talk. I don't intend to submit to your impudence. When you speak to me keep a civil tongue in your head."”

“"Keep a civil tongue in your head," cried the young man, his face paling in anger, at the insulting tone of the sailor.”

“If every high-tempered man knew that his wife would leave him if he dared curse her because the coffee was cold, or dinner fifteen minutes late, he would keep a civil tongue in his head.”

“After Helena Bonham Carter, the great-granddaughter of Herbert Asquith, complained that for all her advantages and beauty directors would not hire her because she was not "trendily working class", an exasperated Kathy Burke found the effort of keeping a civil tongue in her head too much to bear. "As a lifelong member of the non-pretty working classes," she told Time Out, "I would like to say to Helena Bonham Carter: shut up you stupid cunt."”

CEFR level