tongue-in-cheek, a. and adv.
[See tongue n. 4 d.]
A. adj. Ironic, slyly humorous; not meant to be taken seriously. Also tongue-in-the-cheek.
| 1933 Times Lit. Suppl. 30 Mar. 223/4 Shooting the Bull..is a tongue-in-the-cheek march through newspaperdom. 1937 M. Covarrubias Island of Bali xi. 375 A typical tongue-in-cheek Balinese answer to dodge a complicated explanation for outsiders. 1953 Spectator 13 Mar. 320/2 This..novel..seems too facile, too tongue-in-cheek. 1959 Times 4 Sept. 5/1 Though the piece was energetic and often exuberant it was certainly not tongue-in-the-cheek or humorous in style. 1976 National Observer (U.S.) 27 Mar. 10/1, I enjoyed Wesley Pruden's tongue-in-cheek suggestion..that every man, woman, and child in the United States be given a college degree so they ‘become equal’. 1982 Listener 16 Dec. 28/1 Angela Carter translated Perrault's fairy tales..with absolute fidelity to the understatement, the tongue-in-cheek charm of the originals. |
B. adv. = with tongue in cheek s.v. tongue n. 4 d.
| 1934 in Webster. 1976 Listener 18 Mar. 334/3 Someone told Muhammad Ali, tongue-in-cheek, that his book made him come over as a ‘deep thinker’. 1979 H. McLeave Borderline Case xi. 113 ‘You mean you're a spy.’ ‘Only for those people who have something sinister to hide,’ he said, tongue-in-cheek. |