Word.ws English Dictionary

cries uncle

cries uncle is the third-person singular simple present indicative of cry uncle.

Meaning of cry uncle

Verb

cry uncle (third-person singular simple present cries uncle, present participle crying uncle, simple past and past participle cried uncle)

  1. (US, colloquial) To beg for mercy; to give up, admit defeat, surrender; indicate submission, such as when wrestling.
    • The Powels would serve strong punch and play loud music, and their parties ended when the last guest cried uncle, often a day and half after they began.1976, Geoffrey Wolff, Black Sun, New York Review of Books, published 2003, page 158

Questions about cries uncle

What is cries uncle the third-person singular simple present indicative of?
Cries uncle is the third-person singular simple present indicative of cry uncle.

Words near cries uncle in the dictionary

  1. cries over spilt milk
  2. cries poormouth
  3. cries someone a river
  4. cries stinking fish
  5. cries the blues
  6. cries uncle
  7. cries up
  8. cries wolf
  9. criest
  10. crieth
  11. criey

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: cries uncle (page history and authors); cry uncle (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.

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