English

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?

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

• tongs

Etymology 2

From Cantonese 堂 ‎(tong⁴).

Noun

tong ‎(plural tongs)

1. A Chinese secret society or gang.

Translations

See also

• triad
• yakuza

Chuukese

Noun

tong

1. love

Dutch

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -ɔŋ
• IPA^(key): /tɔŋ/

Etymology 1

From Old Dutch tunga, from Proto-Germanic *tungǭ, from Proto-Indo-European *dn̥ǵʰwéh₂s. Compare West Frisian tonge, English tongue, German Zunge, Danish tunge.

Noun

tong f ‎(plural tongen, diminutive tongetje n)

1. (anatomy) tongue

Etymology 2

Noun

tong m ‎(plural tongen, diminutive tongetje n)

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

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

• knipetong

See also

• tang (Bokmål)

References

• “tong” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.