UNSAY (unsaid)

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

Irregular inflected form: unsaid   

 Dictionary entry overview: What does unsay mean? 

• UNSAY (verb)
  The verb UNSAY has 1 sense:

1. take back what one has said

  Familiarity information: UNSAY used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• UNSAY (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they unsay    ... he / she / it unsays   
Past simple: unsaid   
Past participle: unsaid   
-ing form: unsaying   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Take back what one has said

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Synonyms:

swallow; take back; unsay; withdraw

Context example:

He swallowed his words

Hypernyms (to "unsay" is one way to...):

disown; renounce; repudiate (cast off)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

 Context examples 

Say what I would, I could not unsay it.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

“Then unsay it,” cried she quickly; “say that I was right to wish to have vengeance on the Socman.”

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

She wished such words unsaid with all her heart.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

Emma, I must tell you what you will not ask, though I may wish it unsaid the next moment.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

“And do you wish me to go with you?” said I, seeing that he left something unsaid.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

When she had spoken it, she recollected herself, and wished it unsaid; but there was no need of confusion; for her brother saw her only as the supposed inmate of Mansfield parsonage, and replied but to invite her in the kindest manner to his own house, and to claim the best right in her.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

She was so devoted, she had such a quick perception of what it would be well to say, and what it would be well to leave unsaid; she was so forgetful of herself, and so regardful of the sorrow about her, that I held her in a sort of veneration.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)