lab-o'-the-tongue

Updated: July 13, 2026

With constables, deacons, the parson, and that lab-o'-the-tongue the tithing-man each on the alert to keep every one from drinking but himself, the Puritan had little chance to be a toper an he would. The colonists were fiercely intolerant of intemperance among the Indians.

Alice Morse Earle - Customs and Fashions in Old New England