Word.ws English Dictionary

draw one's horns in

draw one's horns in 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 one's horns in

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

Questions about draw one's horns in

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

Words near draw one's horns in in the dictionary

  1. draw lots
  2. Draw My Life
  3. draw near
  4. draw off
  5. draw on
  6. draw one's horns in
  7. draw one's last breath
  8. draw out
  9. draw poker
  10. draw raise
  11. draw raises

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: draw one's horns in (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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