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View synonyms for cry uncle
cry uncle
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Idioms and Phrases
Also, say uncle . Concede defeat, as in The Serbs want the Bosnians to cry uncle , or If you say uncle right now, I'll let you go first in the next game . This phrase originated about 1900 as an imperative among school-children who would say, “Cry uncle when you've had enough (of a beating).” By the mid-1900s it was being used figuratively, as in the examples.Discover More
Example Sentences
When Pakistan imposed the border closing last fall, it was confident that NATO would have to cry uncle fairly soon.
From The Daily Beast
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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
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