pull one's horns in
pull 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)
- 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
- Synonyms:
- calm down, chill, chill out, cool off, cool one's jets, hold one's horses, settle down
Forms of pull one's horns in
| third-person singular present | pulls one's horns in |
|---|---|
| present participle | pulling one's horns in |
| past participle | pulled one's horns in |
| past | pulled one's horns in |
Questions about pull one's horns in
- What is pull one's horns in the alternative form of?
- Pull one's horns in is the alternative form of pull in one's horns.
Words near pull one's horns in in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: pull 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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Cite this entry: “pull one's horns in.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/pull_one%27s_horns_in. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.