tonguey

adjective

1. Tending to talk a lot; fluent or voluble in speech (generally with an unfavourable connotation).

   Seeing then he is now so mute, that before was so tonguy […]

   1608, Philip Woodward, Bels Trial Examined, Doai, Preface,

2. Using many words; containing grandiloquent expressions; marked by rhetorical elegance (generally with an unfavourable connotation).

   […] personal abuse and tonguy sarcasm are not elements of success in law practice.

   1885, J. H. Battle, Kentucky: A History of the State, Louisville, KY: F.A. Battey, “Biographical Sketches,” p. 839,

3. Manifested by fluent or voluble speech.

   […] even his tonguey confidence and ingenuousness could glean but little satisfaction from his interviews with the rheumatic and unbelieving old woman.

4. Involving the tongue.

   Wully seated himself upon the corner of the kitchen table, from beneath which appeared a dog’s welcoming nose accompanied by a tonguey, tooth-trimmed grin.

Where it comes from

From Middle English tungy, tungi, equivalent to tongue + -y. Compare Old English tynġe (“fluent, eloquent, skillful”).

Adapted from the Wiktionary entry tonguey (CC BY-SA 4.0).

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