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unsay. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
unsay, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
unsay in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
unsay you have here. The definition of the word
unsay will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition of
unsay, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.
English
Etymology
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”).
Verb
unsay (third-person singular simple present unsays, present participle unsaying, simple past and past participle unsaid)
- To withdraw, retract (something said).
1851 November 14, Herman Melville, Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC: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 […]
- 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).
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: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 [...]
- I wish I could unsay that.
- There are some things I'd like to unsay... to my boss... right before he decided to fire me.
Synonyms
Translations
to withdraw something said
Anagrams