wicked tongue

plural wicked tongues

1. idiomaticAn abusive, vulgar, nasty, or otherwise objectionable manner of speaking.

   My son, keep well thy tongue, and keep thy friend; A wicked tongue is worse than is a fiend

   c. 1870, Geoffrey Chaucer (original), David Laing Purves (modern translation), The Canterbury Tales, The Manciple's Tale

   5 more examples

   [W]hen I met with any despicable thing, I hesitated not to call it so; and men had never done with talking of my restless head and wicked tongue.

   1839, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, translated by Thomas Carlyle, Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship and Travels, Book VII, ch. 3

   [T]he stories which came to his ears . . . sometimes spoke strange evil of her—of her violent temper, of her wicked tongue, of her outraging of all customs and decencies.

   1897, Frances Hodgson Burnett, chapter 14, in His Grace of Osmonde

   He called him everything he could think of, and this was a great deal, for Sammy has a wicked tongue.

   1917, Thornton W. Burgess, chapter 18, in The Adventures of Paddy the Beaver

   She lies, steals and sleeps around, gleefully spreading malicious rumours wherever she goes. "I like strong, conniving women with wicked tongues," Roos explains.

   1999 January 14, Geoffrey Macnab, “Arts: Strong, conniving women: the final frontier”, in The Independent, UK, retrieved 12 May 2014

   Playing amateur sleuth . . . frees her wicked tongue to spill the beans about her neighbors’ secret vices and adulterous affairs.

   2007 February 4, Marilyn Stasio, “Murder Most Suburban”, in New York Times, retrieved 12 May 2014