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keep a civil tongue in one's head en · VERB

(idiomatic) To maintain a polite manner of speaking.
- "I've had enough of that kind of talk. I don't intend to submit to your impudence. When you speak to me keep a civil tongue in your head." 1875, Horatio Alger, chapter 20, in Herbert Carter's Legacy:
- After Helena Bonham Carter, the great-granddaughter of Herbert Asquith, complained that for all her advantages and beauty directors would not hire her because she was not "trendily working class", an exasperated Kathy Burke found the effort of keeping a civil tongue in her head too much to bear. "As a lifelong member of the non-pretty working classes," she told Time Out, "I would like to say to Helena Bonham Carter: shut up you stupid cunt." 2012 January 15, Nick Cohen, “Viscount Astor, you really are a class apart”, in Guardian, UK, retrieved 23 Jan 2016:
- "Keep a civil tongue in your head," cried the young man, his face paling in anger, at the insulting tone of the sailor. 1914, Edgar Rice Burroughs, chapter 13, in Tarzan of the Apes:
- If every high-tempered man knew that his wife would leave him if he dared curse her because the coffee was cold, or dinner fifteen minutes late, he would keep a civil tongue in his head. 1943 March 25, Dorothy Dix, “Dorothy Dix”, in Spartanburg Herald, retrieved 24 Jan 2016, page 5:

Spelling	Features	Labels	Source
keep a civil tongue		alternative	lexicographic
keeping a civil tongue in one's head	Tense=Pres, VerbForm=Part		lexicographic
keep a civil tongue in one's mouth		alternative	lexicographic
keeps a civil tongue in one's head	Number=Sing, Person=3, Tense=Pres		lexicographic
put a civil tongue in one's head		alternative	lexicographic
put a civil tongue in one's mouth		alternative	lexicographic
kept a civil tongue in one's head	Tense=Past, VerbForm=Part		lexicographic
kept a civil tongue in one's head	Tense=Past		lexicographic