acknowledge the corn
acknowledge the corn verb: to admit to the truth of the point at issue or to a mistake; to cop a plea; or perhaps to admit to a small error but not a larger one.
Verb
acknowledge the corn (third-person singular simple present acknowledges the corn, present participle acknowledging the corn, simple past and past participle acknowledged the corn)
- To admit to the truth of the point at issue or to a mistake; to cop a plea; or perhaps to admit to a small error but not a larger one.
- I hope he will give up the argument, or to use a familiar phrase acknowledge the corn.1846, Jesse Speight, address to the U.S. Senate
- I should like to take a job of that kind on a wager with him, or any other New Hampshire man, and if I did not come out a little ahead on the "home stretch," why then I would "acknowledge the corn," and own myself beaten.1859, J. Underwood, letter to the editor, Samuel W. Cole (editor), The New England Farmer, Volume 11
Examples of acknowledge the corn in a sentence
- Will the hon. gentleman acknowledge the corn?1880, Parliament of Canada, Official report of the debates of the House of Commons of the Dominion of Canada:
- They had simply to "acknowledge the corn," round up, and — "vamoose"; then, so soon as the soldiers had gone back to the fort, there was no law to prevent their returning.1892, The American magazine:
Forms of acknowledge the corn
| third-person singular present | acknowledges the corn |
|---|---|
| present participle | acknowledging the corn |
| past participle | acknowledged the corn |
| past | acknowledged the corn |
Origin of acknowledge the corn
An American expression. Its origin is usually explained via the punch line to some humorous story, but the story and the literal meaning of the punch line vary greatly. * In a debate on tariffs in the U.S. Congress in 1828, Rep. Stewart of Pennsylvania claims that Indiana, Kentucky, and Ohio exported corn to Pennsylvania; on being challenged by Rep. Wickliffe of Kentucky, Stewart explains that the corn to which he alluded is exported in the interiors of hogs fed on that corn. Wickliffe replies contritely, "I acknowledge the corn." * A Louisiana gambler, while drunk, wagers and loses a large quantity of corn and potatoes; when the winner comes to collect, the gambler says, "I acknowledge the corn, but the potatoes you can't have!" * A New Englander boasts of their fine corn fields; a Western visitor says "That's nothing! I'll send you some of our seven-foot corn." He does so, and receives a grudging telegram in reply: "I acknowledge the corn." * A drinker is accused of having imbibed too much corn whisky. He retorts, "I acknowledge the corn," implicitly refusing to acknowledge the "whisky" part of the accusation. In actual usage, though, the phrase was usually associated with...
Questions about acknowledge the corn
- What does acknowledge the corn mean?
- Acknowledge the corn means to admit to the truth of the point at issue or to a mistake; to cop a plea; or perhaps to admit to a small error but not a larger one.
- How do you use acknowledge the corn in a sentence?
- Will the hon. gentleman acknowledge the corn?
- What part of speech is acknowledge the corn?
- Acknowledge the corn is a verb.
- What is the past tense of acknowledge the corn?
- The past tense of acknowledge the corn is acknowledged the corn.
Words near acknowledge the corn in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: acknowledge the corn (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-acknowledge the corn.ogg, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-acknowledge the corn.wav.
Cite this entry: “acknowledge the corn.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/acknowledge_the_corn. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.