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Also, say uncle . Concede defeat, as in The Serbs want the Bosnians to cry uncle , or If you say uncle right now, I'll let you go first in the next game . This phrase originated about 1900 as an imperative among school-children who would say, “Cry uncle when you've had enough (of a beating).”.
Nov 28, 1998 · This call by one child for another to submit or cry for mercy — which appears variously as say uncle!, cry uncle! or holler uncle! — is first recorded in print in the US early in the twentieth century. The Oxford English Dictionary ’s first example is from 1918, but I’ve found an instance in an advertisement in the Modesto News of ...
Aug 31, 2023 · cry uncle (third-person singular simple present cries uncle, present participle crying uncle, simple past and past participle cried uncle) (US, colloquial) To beg for mercy; to give up, admit defeat. [from 19th c.]
Cry-uncle Definition. (US, idiomatic) To beg for mercy; to give up; to ask to stop (something painful or unbearable). Anyone who doesn't cry uncle after the first week will probably last the season.
To admit defeat, to surrender: “Wilbur held his little brother in a headlock until he had to cry uncle.”
What does the idiom Cry uncle mean? The meaning, explanation, and origin of idiom Cry uncle
Meaning of the phrase:-admit defeat · Origin of the phrase:
