mince matters

Idioms  

1. Also, mince words. Moderate or restrain one's language to be polite or avoid giving offense. Today these phrases are nearly always put negatively, as in Not to mince matters, I feel he should resign, or Don't mince words—say what you mean. The usage dates from the mid-1500s and transfers cutting something such as meat into small pieces to minimizing the harsh impact of words.

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Example Sentences

"It seemed too cruel—but wasn't that just what Mrs. Timberlake meant when she said that Mr. Blackburn 'wouldn't mince matters?'"

From The Builders by Glasgow, Ellen Anderson Gholson

On the fourth morning Wulf found his patient sufficiently recovered to be spoken to plainly as to the future, and he did not mince matters.

From Maid of the Mist by Oxenham, John

The marshal felt wroth, and at the conclusion of the distribution sent for the general, whom, not to mince matters, he roundly bullied.

From An Englishman in Paris Notes and Recollections by Albert D.

You see, I never was one to mince matters.

From Dorrien of Cranston by Mitford, Bertram

You see I am hideously candid; I don't mince matters ... where would be the use?

From An Ambitious Woman A Novel by Fawcett, Edgar