mince words

English

Alternative forms

mince one's words

Pronunciation

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Verb

mince words (third-person singular simple present minces words, present participle mincing words, simple past and past participle minced words)

1. (idiomatic, chiefly in the negative) To restrain oneself in a conversation by withholding some comments or using euphemisms.
   • 1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 20, in Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, →OCLC:

     "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, chapter 2, in 100%: The Story of a Patriot:

     The detective did not mince words. "It's plain that you're a boob," he said.

   • 1962 August, “Let's have plain speaking”, in Modern Railways, page 73:

     We remember, too, those admirable reports issued to every passenger during the final stages of the Kent Coast electrification, which did not mince words about the disruption of normal working, but which often turned the situations into an instructive illustration of the complexity of modern railway working.

   • 1983, James C. H. Shen, “Rejoining the Government”, in Robert Myers, editor, The U.S. & Free China: How the U.S. Sold Out Its Ally‎^[1], Washington, D.C.: Acropolis Books Ltd., →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 28:

     They all sought the President's views on the world situation in general and the Asian situation in particular. Without mincing words he would comment on his favorite theme, namely, the insidious scheme of the international Communists to conquer the free world.

   • 2022 July 27, Dr Joseph Brennan, “Bridge disasters that spanned an Empire”, in RAIL, number 962, page 58:

     The coroner did not mince words, in charging the jury with their duty: "The bridge had been utterly neglected from the time that it was built and there had been no proper inspection of it... [...]."

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:mince words.

Usage notes

• Usually used in the negative. Hence, "not mince words" means to be straightforward, plain-spoken, or blunt.

Related terms

• minced oath

Translations

to use euphemisms

• Finnish: kierrellä (fi)
• French: (sense: "not to mince words") ne pas mâcher ses mots (fr)
• German: (sense: "not to mince words") sich kein Blatt vor den Mund nehmen
• Icelandic: tala tæpitungulaust (not mince words), vera ómyrkur í máli (not mince words)
• Italian: pesare le parole, usare mezzi termini
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: ikke ta bladet for munnen (not to mince words)

• Polish: owijać w bawełnę impf
• Russian: говори́ть обиняка́ми (ru) (govorítʹ obinjakámi), (sense: "not to mince words") говори́ть без обиняко́в (govorítʹ bez obinjakóv)
• Spanish: no tener pelos en la lengua (es)
• Swedish: skräda orden (sv)
• Telugu: నీళ్ళు నములు (nīḷḷu namulu)

See also

• weigh one's words
• word-mincer

References

• "mince / not mince words" in the Dictionary.com Unabridged, v1.0.1, Lexico Publishing Group, 2006.