pull in one's horns
Verb
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Verb
- (idiomatic) To become less impassioned, aggressive, or argumentative; to exercise restraint; to yield or capitulate.
- 1848, Anthony Trollope, The Kellys and the O'Kellys, ch. 7:
- Barry . . . stood, during this tirade, half stupefied with rage, and half frightened, at the open attack made on him. . . . However, he couldn't pull in his horns now, and he was obliged, in self-defence, to brazen it out.
- 1904, Jack London, The Sea Wolf, ch. 9:
- "I see Cooky's finish," I heard Smoke say to Horner.
- "You bet," was the reply. "Hump runs the galley from now on, and Cooky pulls in his horns."
- 1912, P. G. Wodehouse, The Adventures of Sally, ch. 14:
- Anyone else would have pulled in his horns and gone slow for a spell, but he's one of those fellows whose horse is always going to win the next race.
- 1950 Oct. 30, "[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,805605,00.html The Press: Time to Pause]," Time:
- Editor & Publisher Edwin Palmer Hoyt decided to pull in his horns. Said Hoyt: "We've decided it is time to pause, recapitulate and prepare to recommence."
- 2003 April 6, Susan Warner, "Fighting Off the Chains ↗," New York Times (retrieved 10 Sep 2012):
- "Smaller hardware stores in the area were scared," he said. "They stopped making investments. They pulled in their horns."
- 1848, Anthony Trollope, The Kellys and the O'Kellys, ch. 7:
- calm down, chill, chill out, cool off, cool one's jets, hold one's horses, settle down
This text is extracted from the Wiktionary and it is available under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license | Terms and conditions | Privacy policy 0.002