Tongue-in-cheek

Tongue-in-cheek is an idiom that describes a humorous or sarcastic statement expressed in a serious manner.

A newspaper clipping from 1833, in which a tailor whose coat was stolen from a bowling alley advertises an offer to alter the coat to fit the thief

History

The phrase originally expressed contempt, but by 1842 had acquired its modern meaning.^[1][2][3] Early users of the phrase include Sir Walter Scott in his 1828 The Fair Maid of Perth.

The physical act of putting one's tongue into one's cheek once signified contempt.^[4] For example, in Tobias Smollett's The Adventures of Roderick Random, which was published in 1748, the eponymous hero takes a coach to Bath and on the way apprehends a highwayman. This provokes an altercation with a less brave passenger:

He looked back and pronounced with a faltering voice, 'O! 'tis very well—damn my blood! I shall find a time.' I signified my contempt of him by thrusting my tongue in my cheek, which humbled him so much, that he scarce swore another oath aloud during the whole journey.^[5]

The phrase appears in 1828 in The Fair Maid of Perth by Sir Walter Scott:

The fellow who gave this all-hail thrust his tongue in his cheek to some scapegraces like himself.

It is not clear how Scott intended readers to understand the phrase.^[1] The more modern ironic sense appeared in a poem in The Ingoldsby Legends (1842) by the English clergyman Richard Barham, in which a Frenchman inspects a watch and cries:

'Superbe! Magnifique!' / (with his tongue in his cheek)^[1]

The ironic usage originates with the idea of suppressed mirth—biting one's tongue to prevent an outburst of laughter.^[6]

See also

• Slang dictionary