"say uncle" meaning in English

See say uncle in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Verb

Audio: En-au-say uncle.ogg [Australia] Forms: says uncle [present, singular, third-person], saying uncle [participle, present], said uncle [participle, past], said uncle [past]
Etymology: Unknown. Uncle may be an anglicization of Irish anacal (“protection”). Etymology templates: {{unknown|en}} Unknown, {{der|en|ga|anacal|t=protection}} Irish anacal (“protection”) Head templates: {{en-verb|say<,,said> uncle}} say uncle (third-person singular simple present says uncle, present participle saying uncle, simple past and past participle said uncle)
  1. (US, idiomatic) To admit defeat; indicate submission, such as when wrestling; to ask for mercy. Tags: US, idiomatic Synonyms: cry uncle

Download JSON data for say uncle meaning in English (2.3kB)

{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en"
      },
      "expansion": "Unknown",
      "name": "unknown"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "ga",
        "3": "anacal",
        "t": "protection"
      },
      "expansion": "Irish anacal (“protection”)",
      "name": "der"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "Unknown. Uncle may be an anglicization of Irish anacal (“protection”).",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "says uncle",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "saying uncle",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "said uncle",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "said uncle",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "say<,,said> uncle"
      },
      "expansion": "say uncle (third-person singular simple present says uncle, present participle saying uncle, simple past and past participle said uncle)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "American 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": "English entries with language name categories using raw markup",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with language name categories using raw markup",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English predicates",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
          "parents": [
            "Terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To admit defeat; indicate submission, such as when wrestling; to ask for mercy."
      ],
      "id": "en-say_uncle-en-verb-klQiqpqa",
      "links": [
        [
          "admit",
          "admit"
        ],
        [
          "defeat",
          "defeat"
        ],
        [
          "submission",
          "submission"
        ],
        [
          "mercy",
          "mercy"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(US, idiomatic) To admit defeat; indicate submission, such as when wrestling; to ask for mercy."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "cry uncle"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "US",
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "En-au-say uncle.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/3/38/En-au-say_uncle.ogg/En-au-say_uncle.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/38/En-au-say_uncle.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "word": "say uncle"
}
{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en"
      },
      "expansion": "Unknown",
      "name": "unknown"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "ga",
        "3": "anacal",
        "t": "protection"
      },
      "expansion": "Irish anacal (“protection”)",
      "name": "der"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "Unknown. Uncle may be an anglicization of Irish anacal (“protection”).",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "says uncle",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "saying uncle",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "said uncle",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "said uncle",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "say<,,said> uncle"
      },
      "expansion": "say uncle (third-person singular simple present says uncle, present participle saying uncle, simple past and past participle said uncle)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "American English",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English entries with language name categories using raw markup",
        "English idioms",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English predicates",
        "English terms derived from Irish",
        "English terms with audio links",
        "English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
        "English terms with unknown etymologies",
        "English verbs"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To admit defeat; indicate submission, such as when wrestling; to ask for mercy."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "admit",
          "admit"
        ],
        [
          "defeat",
          "defeat"
        ],
        [
          "submission",
          "submission"
        ],
        [
          "mercy",
          "mercy"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(US, idiomatic) To admit defeat; indicate submission, such as when wrestling; to ask for mercy."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "US",
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "En-au-say uncle.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/3/38/En-au-say_uncle.ogg/En-au-say_uncle.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/38/En-au-say_uncle.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "cry uncle"
    }
  ],
  "word": "say uncle"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-04-30 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-04-21 using wiktextract (210104c 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.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.