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mince words

verb
/ˌmɪns ˈwɜːdz/UK/ˌmɪns ˈwɜɹdz/CA/ˌməns ˈwøːdz/

Etymology

From mince (“to say or utter vaguely (not directly or frankly)”, transitive figurative verb) + words. First attested in the mid-1500s.

  1. inherited from *werdʰh₁om✻ — “word”
  2. inherited from *wurdą✻ — “word”
  3. inherited from *word✻
  4. inherited from word
  5. inherited from word
  6. compounded as mince words — “mince + word”

Definitions

  1. To restrain oneself when speaking by withholding some comments or using euphemisms in…

    To restrain oneself when speaking by withholding some comments or using euphemisms in order to be polite, tactful, etc.

    • Near-synonym: pull punches
    • For quotations using this term, see Citations:mince words.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for mince words. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA