Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To retract (something said).
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To recant or recall after having been said; retract; take back: as, to unsay one's words.
Wiktionary
- v. To withdraw, retract (something said).
- v. To not have said (since this is physically impossible usually in the subjunctive, as I wish I could unsay).
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. To recant or recall, as what has been said; to refract; to take back again; to make as if not said.
WordNet 3.0
- v. take back what one has said
Etymologies
- From un- + say. (Wiktionary)
Examples
“Since Decius gives thee power, -- that word unsay!”
“I cannot unsay them -- but at least I can clean up the toxic waste I've left behind.”
“So unsay thy words, Nam-Bok, that we may yet honor thee.”
“They told us that on radio it was very easy and simple for people to just say things and then on the next day just say something else or unsay what they said before.”
“I unsay my comment about the lack of lower middle class upbringing amongst posters on this blog.”
Taxes and Market Time, Arnold Kling | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty
“Cameron was so annoyed he sat down and angrily wobbled his jowls for a full 45 minutes probably, while Young ran around trying to unsay his own words.”
“And the stuck-ness, for the working novelist - or at least for this one - has to do with not wanting to get into certain intensely fraught or private experiences, finding - having - feeling that it's absolutely necessary to say things that are absolutely unsay-able.”
“They cannot unsay any of those things, and therefore I will tolerate them because they are my fiancé's parents, but I will not ever trust them again.”
“As soon as the words left her mouth, Caitlyn wished she could unsay them.”
“The phrase has a use in speech where one cannot unsay a phrase, or even internet postings where one may not notice the wordplay before posting a comment, but it has no place in formal writing.”
The Volokh Conspiracy » The Nightmare of Every Rookie Prosecutor:
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘unsay’.
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Mobying Along
looks like there's not an open Moby Dick list. So now there is.
hypos, Manhattoes, circumambulate, mole, grapnels, bowsprit, asphaltic, mazy, tranced, cataract, ungraspable, judgmatically and 227 more...
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
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Clarissa, Or, The History of a Young ...
These words are from Samuel Richardson's novel Clarissa, Or, The History of a Young Lady, 1747-48
adumbrate, virago, varlet, rencounter, akimbo, palliate, amanuensis, amok, equipage, cully, se'ennight, resentments and 560 more...
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Words I want to use
resonate, inchoate, profundity, sopor, clincher, wheedle, illegitimate, abreaction, unsay, miasma, anarchical, sardonic and 2 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for unsay.
bilby Hmmm. Could also be sun in Pig Latin. Jul 5, 2008
minerva ...and since he thought it necessary to tell the people below anything about me, I insisted that he should unsay all he had said, and tell them the truth.
Clarissa Harlowe to Anna Howe, Clarissa by Samuel Richardson Dec 10, 2007