loose lip
1
7.7
- noun
- /luːs lɪp/
- Informal
:
boca suelta
- Be careful what you say around John; he has a reputation for being a loose lip and might share your secrets.
- loose lips sink
Examples
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As a manager, he struggled to deal with Mark's loose lip during confidential discussions.
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Don't trust him; he's a real loose lip!
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A single loose lip can jeopardize an entire team's efforts if sensitive information is leaked.
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Her loose lip nearly ruined the surprise party by mentioning it to the wrong person.
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Her loose lips got her into trouble last week.
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The gossip started spreading quickly because of her loose lips during the party last night.
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Everyone knows that in this business, having a loose lip can lead to serious consequences.
Synonyms
49
4.8
A person who talks too much and tells other people's secrets
10
7.5
A person who talks too much and tells other people's secrets
1
8.1
A person who tells secrets about other people
1
7.7
A person who says things suddenly without thinking
A person who talks too much and tells other people's secrets
Antonyms
How Talkative
Surface Forms
Morphology
The parts 'loose' (unrestrained) and 'lip' (metonymically for speech/mouth) combine to suggest someone whose speech is uncontrolled, so a learner can plausibly infer 'talkative/indiscreet'. However the mapping from 'lip' to 'speech' and the nuance of revealing secrets is somewhat metaphorical and not fully predictable, so it is only partially transparent. Cross-linguistic parallels (e.g. 'loose tongue') help inference but do not make the meaning wholly compositional.
Etymology
Loose lip comes from the wartime warning 'loose lips sink ships.' The image is simple: a loose lip lets words fall out like water and those words can cause big trouble, so it came to mean 'a person who talks too much or reveals secrets'.