Meanings
nountongue-boring (countable and uncountable, plural tongue-borings)
plural tongue-borings
- countablehistoricaluncountableA punishment whereby a hole or bore was made in someone's tongue.
Seventeenth-century settlers in the colonies - and usually their children as well - lived in a world that took for granted stocks and tongue-borings, religious proscriptions, fear of witches, and savage repression of the lower orders.
1993, Peter Kolchin, American Slavery (Penguin History, paperback edition, 65)
Cite this entry
APA
tongue-boring. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/tongue-boring
MLA
“tongue-boring.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/tongue-boring. Accessed November 4, 2026.
Chicago
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “tongue-boring,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/tongue-boring.
Source: tongue-boring on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.