Word.ws English Dictionary

pulled in one's horns

pulled in one's horns is the simple past and past participle 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

Questions about pulled in one's horns

What is pulled in one's horns the simple past and past participle of?
Pulled in one's horns is the simple past and past participle of pull in one's horns.

Words near pulled in one's horns in the dictionary

  1. pulled down a notch
  2. pulled down the curtain
  3. pulled faces
  4. pulled for
  5. pulled in
  6. pulled in one's horns
  7. pulled into
  8. pulled my finger
  9. pulled off
  10. pulled on
  11. pulled one over

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: pulled 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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