Word.ws English Dictionary

draw in one's horns

draw in one's horns is the alternative form of pull in one's horns.

Meaning of pull in one's horns

Verb

pull in one's horns (third-person singular simple present pulls in one's horns, present participle pulling in one's horns, simple past and past participle pulled in one's horns)

  1. (idiomatic) To become less impassioned, aggressive, or argumentative; to exercise restraint; to yield or capitulate.
    • Barry . . . stood, during this tirade, half stupefied with rage, and half frightened, at the open attack made on him. . . . However, he couldn't pull in his horns now, and he was obliged, in self-defence, to brazen it out.1848, Anthony Trollope, chapter 7, in The Kellys and the O'Kellys

Forms of draw in one's horns

third-person singular presentdraws in one's horns
present participledrawing in one's horns
pastdrew in one's horns
past participledrawn in one's horns

Questions about draw in one's horns

What is draw in one's horns the alternative form of?
Draw in one's horns is the alternative form of pull in one's horns.

Words near draw in one's horns in the dictionary

  1. draw frames
  2. draw gear
  3. draw hoe
  4. draw hoes
  5. draw in
  6. draw in one's horns
  7. draw into
  8. draw iron
  9. draw it fine
  10. draw it mild
  11. draw left

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: draw in one's horns (page history and authors); pull in one's horns (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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