What is the meaning of the word tongue as used below? At the brink of a very steep hill, we detached all but two of the oxen, which were left to hold up the wagon’s tongue.

This is hard to explain but I’m going to try. So on old timey wagons there were many parts, but this long wooden stick came out of the front bottom of the wagon. That’s the tongue. It’s called the falling tongue to be exact. The tongue was meant for horses of mules, so the wagon could be pulled by either animal. I hope this helps.