English

Noun

tonsils

1. plural of tonsil
   • 1960, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, “chapter XX”, in Jeeves in the Offing, London: Herbert Jenkins, OCLC 1227855:

     “So now everything's fine.” I uttered a hacking laugh. “No,” I said, in answer to a query from Aunt Dahlia. “I have not accidentally swallowed my tonsils, I was merely laughing hackingly. Ironical that the young blister should say that everything is fine, for at this very moment disaster stares us in the eyeball.”

2. (plural only, nonstandard) The uvula.

Derived terms

• faucial tonsils
• pharyngeal tonsils
• to the tonsils, up to the tonsils