0 If you say something tongue in cheek, you intend it to be understood as a joke, although you might appear to be serious:
1 meant to be understood as a joke, although it might appear to be serious:
2 intended to be understood as a joke, although often seeming serious:
His tongue-in-cheek comparison of the religious life with the life of a fox-hunting man has a certain wry panache.
The style is breezy, and often tongue-in-cheek, and deals fairly with controversial issues such as animal rights and bioethics.
Although his account was unpolished and obviously written in haste, he had a tongue-in-cheek wit that is most attractive.
A seriously tongue-in-cheek essay on helping learners learn through doubting and challenging, and not through swallowing whole what they are told in the classroom or a book.
Equally, they were obviously tongue-in-cheek, which admittedly is a form of humour not always appreciated in other countries.
There is a good deal of tongue-in-cheek quibbling by some people about it.
There has been a certain tongue-in-cheek attitude over this matter.
A tongue-in-cheek award of parliamentarian of the year was made to the leader of my party, who deserves many awards, but perhaps not that one.
