Word.ws English Dictionary

say uncle

say uncle verb: synonym of cry uncle.

Verb

say uncle (third-person singular simple present says uncle, present participle saying uncle, simple past and past participle said uncle)

  1. (US, idiomatic) Synonym of cry uncle.
    Synonyms:
    cry uncle

Synonyms of say uncle

Forms of say uncle

third-person singular presentsays uncle
present participlesaying uncle
past participlesaid uncle
pastsaid uncle

Origin of say uncle

Unknown. Uncle may be an anglicization of Irish anacal (“protection”).

Questions about say uncle

What does say uncle mean?
Say uncle means synonym of cry uncle.
What part of speech is say uncle?
Say uncle is a verb.
What is the past tense of say uncle?
The past tense of say uncle is said uncle.

Words near say uncle in the dictionary

  1. say that again
  2. say the quiet part loud
  3. say the quiet part out loud
  4. say the word
  5. say to oneself
  6. say uncle
  7. say wha
  8. say what
  9. say what you like
  10. say what you want
  11. say what you will

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: say uncle (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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-say uncle.ogg.

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