Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun One that functions or is shaped like a tongue.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Something in the shape of a little tongue.
  • noun Specifically— A thin slip or tongue of metal placed to preserve the necessary space between the two blades of a comb-cutters, saw, the strip being of the thickness of the teeth required in the comb. Also called languid. E. H. Knight.
  • noun On a sword-hilt, a small hinged piece of metal which turns down over the scabbard. Also called linguet.
  • noun In music, same as languette, 2.
  • noun In zoology, one of the series of little tongue-like or tentaculiform processes on a longitudinal ridge along the middle line of the pharyngeal cavity or branchial sac of an ascidiau.
  • noun In entomology, same as languette, 3 .

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun Anything resembling the tongue in form or office; specif., the slip of metal in an organ pipe which turns the current of air toward its mouth.
  • noun That part of the hilt, in certain kinds of swords, which overlaps the scabbard.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun a tongue-shaped implement, specifically:
  • noun archaic a narrow tongue of land
  • noun zoology a tongue-like organ found on certain tunicates

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Old French languete, diminutive of langue, tongue, from Latin lingua; see dn̥ghū- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Old French languete (modern languette), diminutive of langue ‘tongue’, from Latin lingua.

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Examples

  • The swords have a simple crossguard and most have a languet, a short central extension towards the blade that fits over the scabbard when sheathed.

    Archive 2009-08-01 legatus hedlius 2009

  • The swords have a simple crossguard and most have a languet, a short central extension towards the blade that fits over the scabbard when sheathed.

    Sudanese Kaskara Swords legatus hedlius 2009

  • She awoke to the dulcetptwee-ptwerr of the iridescent-wingedsila languet, one of the most euphonious of all the inhabitants of New Riviera's takari forests.

    Flinx's Folly Foster, Alan Dean, 1946- 2003

  • In addition to the arresting song of the sila languet, the crescendoingmutter-mutter of colusai climbers filtered in from outside.

    Flinx's Folly Foster, Alan Dean, 1946- 2003

  • Post ejus interitum omnis nostra juventus languet, deliciis plus dedita quàm deceret: nec perinde, ac debuerat, in laudis et gloriae cupiditate versatur.

    The History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic — Volume 3 William Hickling Prescott 1827

  • Non iUis geneiis nexus, noti pignora curat Sed numero languet pietas,

    De veritate religionis christianæ Hugo Grotius, Jean Le Clerc, 1657-1736 1772

  • Ναι ■ vides, fi antmus languet, que nomiue iimplex τ lcnDendum videtur.

    Suidae Lexicon, Græce & Latine 1705

  • ***** hic summa leni stringitur Thetis vento: nec languet aequor, viva sed quies ponti pictam phaselon adiuvante fert aura, sicut puellae lion amantis aestatem mota salubre purpura venit frigus. nec saeta longo quaerit in mari praedam, sed a cubili lectuloque iactatam spectatus alte lineam trahit piscis.

    Post-Augustan Poetry From Seneca to Juvenal Harold Edgeworth Butler 1914

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