To hold your tongue is to stop yourself from saying what you are thinking. Hold your tongue, better hold your tongue.
It is an effort rather than an absence, which is the whole point of the phrase. Said as an order it is sharp and old-fashioned.
1phrasehold your tongueTo stop yourself from saying what you are thinking.
“You will have to hold your tongue through the whole of the speech.”
hold your tongue is a phrase.
Practised in Idioms