Word.ws English Dictionary

pulls in one's horns

pulls in one's horns is the third-person singular simple present indicative 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 pulls in one's horns

What is pulls in one's horns the third-person singular simple present indicative of?
Pulls in one's horns is the third-person singular simple present indicative of pull in one's horns.

Words near pulls in one's horns in the dictionary

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

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: pulls 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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