the cat got your tongue
- idiom
- Informal
:
se te cayó la lengua
- She looked surprised and didn't respond; it seemed that the cat got her tongue.
But you shouldn't let your fear of the opinions of men let the cat get your tongue, because then you're not afraid of the right thing.
- But you shouldn't let your fear of the opinions of men let the cat get your tongue, because then you're not afraid of the right thing.
Examples
-
But you shouldn't let your fear of the opinions of men let the cat get your tongue, because then you're not afraid of the right thing.
-
Why are you so quiet today? Did the cat get your tongue?
-
When asked a question, he just stared at the floor, as if the cat got his tongue.
Synonyms
397
1.0
Not speaking when people expect an answer
181
4.0
Not speaking about something when people ask you
9
5.8
Unable to speak easily because you are nervous or embarrassed
1
8.1
Become unable to speak when you feel nervous or embarrassed
Antonyms
How Silent
Surface Forms
Morphology
the + cat + got + your + tongue
The sense 'someone is unusually quiet' cannot be derived from the literal constituents—'cat got your tongue' would literally suggest a cat has taken someone's tongue, which does not map onto the idiomatic meaning. This is a culture-specific idiom whose meaning is not compositional or predictable from the parts, so a B1 learner who knows the words would not reliably infer the intended sense.
Etymology
The cat got your tongue may come from a simple, silly picture: a cat grabbing someone's tongue so they cannot speak. So today the phrase means that someone is suddenly 'silent' or does not say what was expected.