A person or thing with a ‘long tongue.’
1. a. A small bird of the Cape of Good Hope. ? Obs. b. dial. The wryneck.
1731. Medley, Kolben’s Cape G. Hope, II. 155. There is a little bird at the Cape for which I know no other name than what the Cape Europeans give it, which is Long Tongue.
1772–84. Cook, Voy. (1790), III. 937. The long-tongue is about the size of a bull-finch, and his tongue is not only very long, but said to be as hard as iron.
1837. Macgillivray, Hist. Brit. Birds, III. 100. The Wryneck. Emmet-hunter. Long-tongue.
1843. Penny Cycl., XXVII. 592/2. The Wryneck is the … Long-Tongue … of the modern British.
2. A chatterer, blab.
1847. in Halliwell.
1877. N. W. Linc. Gloss., Long-tongue, (1) a tale-bearer.
