Word.ws English Dictionary

mincing words

mincing words is the present participle and gerund of mince words.

Meaning of mince words

Verb

mince words (third-person singular simple present minces words, present participle mincing words, simple past and past participle minced words)

  1. (idiomatic, intransitive) To restrain oneself when speaking by withholding some comments or using euphemisms in order to be polite, tactful, etc.
    • Near-synonym: pull punches

Questions about mincing words

What is mincing words the present participle and gerund of?
Mincing words is the present participle and gerund of mince words.

Words near mincing words in the dictionary

  1. mincier
  2. minciest
  3. mincing
  4. mincing one's words
  5. mincing up
  6. mincing words
  7. mincingly
  8. mincingness
  9. mincings
  10. Minco
  11. Mincopi

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: mincing words (page history and authors); mince words (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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