mince words
Verb
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Verb
- (idiomatic) To restrain oneself in a conversation by withholding some comments or using euphemisms.
- 1848, William Makepeace Thackeray, Vanity Fair, ch. 20:
- "I ask you, William, could I suppose that the Emperor of Austria was a damned traitor—a traitor, and nothing more? I don’t mince words—a double-faced infernal traitor and schemer."
- 1920, Upton Sinclair, 100%: The Story of a Patriot, ch. 2:
- The detective did not mince words. "It's plain that you're a boob," he said.
- 1848, William Makepeace Thackeray, Vanity Fair, ch. 20:
- French: (sense: "not to mince words") ne pas mâcher ses mots
- German: (sense: "not to mince words") sich kein Blatt vor den Mund nehmen
- Italian: pesare le parole
- Russian: говори́ть обиняка́ми
- Spanish: no tener pelos en la lengua
This text is extracted from the Wiktionary and it is available under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license | Terms and conditions | Privacy policy 0.003