uncle

American  

[uhng-kuhl] / ˈʌŋ kəl /

noun

1. a brother of one's father or mother.

2. an aunt's husband.

3. a familiar title or term of address for any elderly man.

4. Slang. a pawnbroker.

5. (initial capital letter) Uncle Sam.

6. a word formerly used in communications to represent the letter U.

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idioms

1. say / cry uncle, to concede defeat.

   They ganged up on him in the schoolyard and made him say uncle.

uncle British  

/ ˈʌŋkəl /

noun

1. a brother of one's father or mother

2. the husband of one's aunt

3. a term of address sometimes used by children for a male friend of their parents

4. slang a pawnbroker

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uncle More Idioms  

1. see cry uncle; Dutch uncle.

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Other Word Forms

• uncleless adjective
• uncleship noun

Etymology

Origin of uncle

First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English, from Anglo-French uncle, Old French oncle, from Latin avunculus “mother's brother,” equivalent to av(us) “mother's father” + -unculus suffix extracted from diminutives of n-stems ( homunculus )

Example Sentences

Copies of the report are also being sent to Mohamed's mother and father, his maternal grandmother, his uncle, and the London Ambulance Service.

From BBC

“I am very happy we could get the car we wanted at a reduced price,” said Dixit, whose father and uncle helped fund the purchase.

From The Wall Street Journal

In the summer of 2022, Smith moved into a downtown building where he paid rent to Yaghoubtil’s uncle, according to text messages between the two men.

From Los Angeles Times

In September he greeted his uncle who had been deported without any possessions to provide him with a backpack of essentials, courtesy of a grassroots mutual aid project, the Ba Lô Project.

From Salon

The phrase was based off his uncle, he said in a 2008 interview, and he had also said it in the same intonation in other films before debuting on HBO's The Wire.

From BBC

Related Words

• aunt
• cousin
• father
• folk
• mother
• niece
• sibling