"unsay" meaning in English

{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "enm",
        "3": "unseyen"
      },
      "expansion": "Middle English unseyen",
      "name": "inh"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "ang",
        "3": "onseċġan",
        "t": "to deny, renounce"
      },
      "expansion": "Old English onseċġan (“to deny, renounce”)",
      "name": "inh"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "gmw-pro",
        "3": "*andasaggjan",
        "t": "to unsay, renounce, deny"
      },
      "expansion": "Proto-West Germanic *andasaggjan (“to unsay, renounce, deny”)",
      "name": "inh"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "un",
        "3": "say",
        "id1": "reversive"
      },
      "expansion": "un- + say",
      "name": "pre"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "nl",
        "2": "ontzeggen",
        "t": "to deny"
      },
      "expansion": "Dutch ontzeggen (“to deny”)",
      "name": "cog"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "de",
        "2": "entsagen",
        "t": "to renounce, abjure"
      },
      "expansion": "German entsagen (“to renounce, abjure”)",
      "name": "cog"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From Middle English unseyen, unseien, from Old English onseċġan (“to deny, renounce”), from Proto-West Germanic *andasaggjan (“to unsay, renounce, deny”), equivalent to un- + say. Cognate with Dutch ontzeggen (“to deny”), German entsagen (“to renounce, abjure”).",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "unsays",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "unsaying",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "unsaid",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "unsaid",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "unsays",
        "2": "unsaying",
        "3": "unsaid"
      },
      "expansion": "unsay (third-person singular simple present unsays, present participle unsaying, simple past and past participle unsaid)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "51 49",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1851 November 14, Herman Melville, Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC:",
          "text": "And in the first place, you will be so good as to unsay that story about selling his head, which if true I take to be good evidence that this harpooneer is stark mad […]",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To withdraw, retract (something said)."
      ],
      "id": "en-unsay-en-verb-4eOUULD5",
      "links": [
        [
          "withdraw",
          "withdraw"
        ],
        [
          "retract",
          "retract"
        ]
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "_dis1": "72 28",
          "sense": "retract something said",
          "word": "retract"
        }
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "_dis1": "75 25",
          "code": "sh",
          "lang": "Serbo-Croatian",
          "sense": "to withdraw something said",
          "word": "poništiti izrečeno"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "75 25",
          "code": "sh",
          "lang": "Serbo-Croatian",
          "sense": "to withdraw something said",
          "word": "poreći"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "75 25",
          "code": "sh",
          "lang": "Serbo-Croatian",
          "sense": "to withdraw something said",
          "word": "povući izrečeno"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "51 49",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "42 58",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English terms prefixed with un- (reversive)",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "40 60",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Entries with translation boxes",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "40 60",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "30 70",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "32 68",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Serbo-Croatian translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "I wish I could unsay that.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "text": "There are some things I'd like to unsay... to my boss... right before he decided to fire me.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1641 June or July, John Milton, Of Prelatical Episcopacy, and Whether It may be Deduc’d from the Apostolical Times by Virtue of Those Testimonies which are Alledg’d to that Purpose in Some Late Treatises; […]; republished in A Complete Collection of the Historical, Political, and Miscellaneous Works of John Milton, […], volume I, Amsterdam [actually London: s.n.], 1698, →OCLC, page 247:",
          "text": "Certainly if Chriſts Apoſtle have ſet down but two, then according to his own words, though he himſelf ſhuld unſay it, and not only the Angel of Smyrna, but an Angel from Heaven ſhould bear us down that there be three, Saint Paul has doom'd him twiſe, Let him be accurſt [...]",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To cause something not to have been said; to make it so that one never said something (since this is physically impossible, usually in the subjunctive)."
      ],
      "id": "en-unsay-en-verb-hQ2PC0rc",
      "links": [
        [
          "said",
          "said"
        ],
        [
          "subjunctive",
          "subjunctive#English"
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0",
      "word": "take back"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0",
      "word": "unspeak"
    }
  ],
  "word": "unsay"
}

{
  "categories": [
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English terms derived from Middle English",
    "English terms derived from Old English",
    "English terms derived from Proto-West Germanic",
    "English terms inherited from Middle English",
    "English terms inherited from Old English",
    "English terms inherited from Proto-West Germanic",
    "English terms prefixed with un- (reversive)",
    "English verbs",
    "Entries with translation boxes",
    "Pages with 1 entry",
    "Pages with entries",
    "Terms with Serbo-Croatian translations"
  ],
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "enm",
        "3": "unseyen"
      },
      "expansion": "Middle English unseyen",
      "name": "inh"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "ang",
        "3": "onseċġan",
        "t": "to deny, renounce"
      },
      "expansion": "Old English onseċġan (“to deny, renounce”)",
      "name": "inh"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "gmw-pro",
        "3": "*andasaggjan",
        "t": "to unsay, renounce, deny"
      },
      "expansion": "Proto-West Germanic *andasaggjan (“to unsay, renounce, deny”)",
      "name": "inh"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "un",
        "3": "say",
        "id1": "reversive"
      },
      "expansion": "un- + say",
      "name": "pre"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "nl",
        "2": "ontzeggen",
        "t": "to deny"
      },
      "expansion": "Dutch ontzeggen (“to deny”)",
      "name": "cog"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "de",
        "2": "entsagen",
        "t": "to renounce, abjure"
      },
      "expansion": "German entsagen (“to renounce, abjure”)",
      "name": "cog"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From Middle English unseyen, unseien, from Old English onseċġan (“to deny, renounce”), from Proto-West Germanic *andasaggjan (“to unsay, renounce, deny”), equivalent to un- + say. Cognate with Dutch ontzeggen (“to deny”), German entsagen (“to renounce, abjure”).",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "unsays",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "unsaying",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "unsaid",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "unsaid",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "unsays",
        "2": "unsaying",
        "3": "unsaid"
      },
      "expansion": "unsay (third-person singular simple present unsays, present participle unsaying, simple past and past participle unsaid)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with quotations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1851 November 14, Herman Melville, Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC:",
          "text": "And in the first place, you will be so good as to unsay that story about selling his head, which if true I take to be good evidence that this harpooneer is stark mad […]",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To withdraw, retract (something said)."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "withdraw",
          "withdraw"
        ],
        [
          "retract",
          "retract"
        ]
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English terms with usage examples"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "I wish I could unsay that.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "text": "There are some things I'd like to unsay... to my boss... right before he decided to fire me.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1641 June or July, John Milton, Of Prelatical Episcopacy, and Whether It may be Deduc’d from the Apostolical Times by Virtue of Those Testimonies which are Alledg’d to that Purpose in Some Late Treatises; […]; republished in A Complete Collection of the Historical, Political, and Miscellaneous Works of John Milton, […], volume I, Amsterdam [actually London: s.n.], 1698, →OCLC, page 247:",
          "text": "Certainly if Chriſts Apoſtle have ſet down but two, then according to his own words, though he himſelf ſhuld unſay it, and not only the Angel of Smyrna, but an Angel from Heaven ſhould bear us down that there be three, Saint Paul has doom'd him twiſe, Let him be accurſt [...]",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To cause something not to have been said; to make it so that one never said something (since this is physically impossible, usually in the subjunctive)."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "said",
          "said"
        ],
        [
          "subjunctive",
          "subjunctive#English"
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "sense": "retract something said",
      "word": "retract"
    },
    {
      "word": "take back"
    },
    {
      "word": "unspeak"
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "sh",
      "lang": "Serbo-Croatian",
      "sense": "to withdraw something said",
      "word": "poništiti izrečeno"
    },
    {
      "code": "sh",
      "lang": "Serbo-Croatian",
      "sense": "to withdraw something said",
      "word": "poreći"
    },
    {
      "code": "sh",
      "lang": "Serbo-Croatian",
      "sense": "to withdraw something said",
      "word": "povući izrečeno"
    }
  ],
  "word": "unsay"
}