tongue-tie

• tongue tie

tongue-tie (countable and uncountable, plural tongue-ties)

1. (uncountable, medicine) Ankyloglossia, a congenital oral anomaly.
2. (countable) A piece of cloth used to tie down a horse's tongue, to facilitate breathing etc.

tongue-tie (third-person singular simple present tongue-ties, present participle tongue-tying, simple past and past participle tongue-tied)

1. (transitive) To disconcert or fluster (a person) so that they cannot speak coherently.
   • 1833, [Charles Lamb], “Preface. By a Friend of the Late Elia.”, in The Last Essays of Elia. […], London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page ix:

     Marry—as the friendly vapour ascended, how his prattle would curl up sometimes with it! the ligaments, which tongue-tied him, were loosened, and the stammerer proceeded a statist!

• Ankyloglossia on Wikipedia.Wikipedia