find one's tongue

English

Verb

find one's tongue (third-person singular simple present finds one's tongue, present participle finding one's tongue, simple past and past participle found one's tongue)

1. (idiomatic) To speak after being unable to do so or after remaining silent; to find something to say.
   • 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:

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

   • 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 5, page 225:

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

   • 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:

     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!”

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

     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.

Translations

to speak after being unable to do so or after remaining silent

• Hungarian: megoldódik a nyelve (hu)