find one's tongue

present singular third person finds one's tongue · participle present finding one's tongue · participle past found one's tongue · past found one's tongue

1. idiomaticTo speak after being unable to do so or after remaining silent; to find something to say.

   HAVGHTY. Is this the silent woman? CENTAVRE. Nay, shee has found her tongue since shee was married, master TRVE-WIT sayes.

   1609 December (first performance), Beniamin Ionson [i.e., Ben Jonson], “Epicoene, or The Silent Woman. A Comœdie. […]”, in The Workes of Beniamin Ionson (First Folio), London: […] Will[iam] Stansby, published 1616, →OCLC, Act III, scene vi, page 562

   3 more examples

   Jones, tho’ perhaps, the most astonished of the three, first found his Tongue; and […] he burst into a loud Laughter […]

   1749, Henry Fielding, chapter 5, in The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC, book V, page 225

   But I did not answer at once. I stared incredulous. For an instant I could not believe my eyes. I gave an inarticulate cry. I gripped his arm. I pointed. “Look!” I cried, finding my tongue. “There! Yes! And there!”

   1900 December – 1901 August, H[erbert] G[eorge] Wells, “chapter 8”, in The First Men in the Moon, London: George Newnes, […], published 1901, →OCLC, page 87

   Joyce knew things were going badly, but she couldn’t find her tongue to smooth it out. A million dangerous double entendres were sitting at the back of her throat, and, if she opened her mouth even a slit (!), she feared one of them was going to come out.

   2000, Zadie Smith, White Teeth, London: Hamish Hamilton, →ISBN, page 300