"pull one's head in" meaning in English

See pull one's head in in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Verb

Audio: en-au-pull one's head in.ogg [Australia] Forms: pulls one's head in [present, singular, third-person], pulling one's head in [participle, present], pulled one's head in [participle, past], pulled one's head in [past]
Etymology: Perhaps from the habit of soldiers poking their heads out of army troop trains to make smart remarks, or in reference to a turtle drawing its head inside its shell for protection. Australian from circa 1930. Head templates: {{en-verb|*}} pull one's head in (third-person singular simple present pulls one's head in, present participle pulling one's head in, simple past and past participle pulled one's head in)
  1. (figurative, Australia, New Zealand) To withdraw; to discontinue what one is doing or saying; to back off. Tags: Australia, New-Zealand, figuratively Related terms: stick one's neck out, wind one's neck in
    Sense id: en-pull_one's_head_in-en-verb-VaL-icVh Categories (other): Australian English, English entries with incorrect language header, New Zealand English

Inflected forms

Download JSON data for pull one's head in meaning in English (3.0kB)

{
  "etymology_text": "Perhaps from the habit of soldiers poking their heads out of army troop trains to make smart remarks, or in reference to a turtle drawing its head inside its shell for protection. Australian from circa 1930.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "pulls one's head in",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "pulling one's head in",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "pulled one's head in",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "pulled one's head in",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "*"
      },
      "expansion": "pull one's head in (third-person singular simple present pulls one's head in, present participle pulling one's head in, simple past and past participle pulled one's head in)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Australian English",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "New Zealand English",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "I really should have pulled my head in once they produced that evidence."
        },
        {
          "ref": "1968, John Rowe, Count Your Dead, published 2003, page 68",
          "text": "“Come on. Get yer gear off. Get yer gear off like mine,” the fanstopper Australian shouted, standing and pointing to his own bare chest. Two of his friends pulled him back down into his chair.\n“Pull your head in,” one of them said.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2011, Barry Hall, Michael Cowley, Pulling No Punches, unnumbered page",
          "text": "‘But you have got to pull your head in a little bit,’ he said. ‘We love your aggression and your toughness, but all the other stuff is hurting you – we need to pull you into line.’",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2012, Brendan Fevola, Adam McNicol, Fev: In My Own Words, unnumbered page",
          "text": "Denis also told me to me pull my head in on The Footy Show, but that was never going to happen. I loved being the class clown on that show too much.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To withdraw; to discontinue what one is doing or saying; to back off."
      ],
      "id": "en-pull_one's_head_in-en-verb-VaL-icVh",
      "links": [
        [
          "withdraw",
          "withdraw"
        ],
        [
          "discontinue",
          "discontinue"
        ],
        [
          "back off",
          "back off"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(figurative, Australia, New Zealand) To withdraw; to discontinue what one is doing or saying; to back off."
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "word": "stick one's neck out"
        },
        {
          "word": "wind one's neck in"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "Australia",
        "New-Zealand",
        "figuratively"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "en-au-pull one's head in.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/a/a2/En-au-pull_one%27s_head_in.ogg/En-au-pull_one%27s_head_in.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a2/En-au-pull_one%27s_head_in.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "word": "pull one's head in"
}
{
  "etymology_text": "Perhaps from the habit of soldiers poking their heads out of army troop trains to make smart remarks, or in reference to a turtle drawing its head inside its shell for protection. Australian from circa 1930.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "pulls one's head in",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "pulling one's head in",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "pulled one's head in",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "pulled one's head in",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "*"
      },
      "expansion": "pull one's head in (third-person singular simple present pulls one's head in, present participle pulling one's head in, simple past and past participle pulled one's head in)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "stick one's neck out"
    },
    {
      "word": "wind one's neck in"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "Australian English",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English terms with audio links",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English verbs",
        "New Zealand English"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "I really should have pulled my head in once they produced that evidence."
        },
        {
          "ref": "1968, John Rowe, Count Your Dead, published 2003, page 68",
          "text": "“Come on. Get yer gear off. Get yer gear off like mine,” the fanstopper Australian shouted, standing and pointing to his own bare chest. Two of his friends pulled him back down into his chair.\n“Pull your head in,” one of them said.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2011, Barry Hall, Michael Cowley, Pulling No Punches, unnumbered page",
          "text": "‘But you have got to pull your head in a little bit,’ he said. ‘We love your aggression and your toughness, but all the other stuff is hurting you – we need to pull you into line.’",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2012, Brendan Fevola, Adam McNicol, Fev: In My Own Words, unnumbered page",
          "text": "Denis also told me to me pull my head in on The Footy Show, but that was never going to happen. I loved being the class clown on that show too much.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To withdraw; to discontinue what one is doing or saying; to back off."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "withdraw",
          "withdraw"
        ],
        [
          "discontinue",
          "discontinue"
        ],
        [
          "back off",
          "back off"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(figurative, Australia, New Zealand) To withdraw; to discontinue what one is doing or saying; to back off."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "Australia",
        "New-Zealand",
        "figuratively"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "en-au-pull one's head in.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/a/a2/En-au-pull_one%27s_head_in.ogg/En-au-pull_one%27s_head_in.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a2/En-au-pull_one%27s_head_in.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "word": "pull one's head in"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-03 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-05-02 using wiktextract (f4fd8c9 and c9440ce). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

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