click one's tongue

present singular third person clicks one's tongue · participle present clicking one's tongue · participle past clicked one's tongue · past clicked one's tongue

1. To make a clicking noise with a sucking action of the tongue, to express disapproval or impatience, urge on a horse, etc.

   The driver clambered into his seat, clicked his tongue, and we went downhill.

   1896, Joseph Conrad, “The Idiots”, in Tales of Unrest, published 1898

   2 more examples

   Elizabeth raised her gun, which had begun trembling as usual. The beaters halted in a group to watch, and some of them could not refrain from clicking their tongues; they thought it queer and rather shocking to see a woman handle a gun.

   1934 October, George Orwell [pseudonym; Eric Arthur Blair], “Chapter 14”, in Burmese Days, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, Publishers, →OCLC

   Radha Aunty clicked her tongue against her teeth impatiently. “Oh, I’m so tired of that,” she said. “Why can’t we just put it behind us.”

   1994, Shyam Selvadurai, chapter 2, in Funny Boy, Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, page 59

   Synonyms: cluck one's tongue