tongue-in-cheek

tongue-in-cheek

/ˌtʌŋ ɪn ˈtʃiːk/

🎭 Tone & Register

meant ironically rather than literally

tongue-in-cheek in a sentence

The acceptance speech was tongue-in-cheek from the first bow.

Origin of tongue-in-cheek

19th-century idiom: pressing the tongue into the cheek to suppress a smirk