tong

See also: tóng, tòng, tông, tōng, töng, tổng, tǒng, and tǫng

English

Pronunciation

  • (UK) IPA(key): /tɒŋ/
  • Rhymes: -ɒŋ

Etymology 1

From Old English tange, from Proto-Germanic *tangō, from Proto-Indo-European *denḱ- (“to bite”). Cognate with Old Norse tǫng (modern Icelandic töng), Old High German zanga (modern German Zange). Other cognates include Sanskrit दशति (daśati, “to bite”) and Albanian dang (“bite, nip”).

Noun

tong (plural tongs)

  1. An instrument or tool used for manipulating things in a fire without touching them with the hands.
    • 1998, Alberdina Houtman, Marcel Poorthuis, Joshua Schwartz (editors), Sanctity of time and space in tradition and modernity, page 232:
      […] these attributes are concrete expressions of God's care and providence and therefore not man-made. This explains the quite bizarre presence of a ‘pair’ of tongs in some lists: in order to make a tong one needs a tong, and how could the first tong be made without a tong?
Derived terms
Translations

Verb

tong (third-person singular simple present tongs, present participle tonging, simple past and past participle tonged)

  1. (intransitive) To use tongs.
  2. (transitive) To grab, manipulate or transport something using tongs.
Translations

See also

Etymology 2

From Cantonese 堂 (tong⁴).

Noun

tong (plural tongs)

  1. A Chinese secret society or gang.
Translations

See also

Chuukese

Noun

tong

  1. love

Dutch

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /tɔŋ/
  • Rhymes: -ɔŋ
  • audio(file)

Etymology 1

From Middle Dutch tonge, from Old Dutch tunga, from Proto-Germanic *tungǭ, from Proto-Indo-European *dn̥ǵʰwéh₂s.

Noun

tong f (plural tongen, diminutive tongetje n)

  1. tongue

Etymology 2

Noun

tong m (plural tongen, diminutive tongetje n)

  1. A kind of flatfish, the common sole, Solea solea.

Malay

Etymology 1

From Chinese 桶. Related to tahang.

Noun

tong (plural tong-tong)

  1. barrel, tub, bin

Etymology 2

From Dutch ton.

Noun

tong (plural tong-tong)

  1. ton

Mandarin

Romanization

tong

  1. Nonstandard spelling of tōng.
  2. Nonstandard spelling of tóng.
  3. Nonstandard spelling of tǒng.
  4. Nonstandard spelling of tòng.

Usage notes

  • English transcriptions of Mandarin speech often fail to distinguish between the critical tonal differences employed in the Mandarin language, using words such as this one without the appropriate indication of tone.

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology

From Old Norse tǫng

Noun

tong f (definite singular tonga, indefinite plural tenger, definite plural tengene)

  1. (a pair of) pliers, pincers

Derived terms

See also

References

Westrobothnian

Etymology

From Old Norse þungr, from Proto-Germanic *þunguz, akin to Proto-Slavic *tęžьkъ (compare Serbo-Croatian težak) and Lithuanian tingus.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): [tʰɯ̞́ᵝŋː], [tʰóŋː], [tʰɔ́ʊ̯ŋ(ɡ̊)]
    Rhymes: -úŋɡ

Adjective

tong (neuter tongt, plural tōng)

  1. heavy
    hä jär för mykkjä tongt
    it is much too heavy

Derived terms

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