unsay
Americanverb (used with object)
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unsays,
present (3rd person singular)
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unsaid,
past participle, past
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unsaying
present participle
verb
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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unsaysimple
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unsayssimple
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have unsaidperfect
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has unsaidperfect
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am unsayingprogressive
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are unsayingprogressive
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is unsayingprogressive
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have been unsayingperfect progressive
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has been unsayingperfect progressive
Past
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unsaidsimple
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had unsaidperfect
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was unsayingprogressive
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were unsayingprogressive
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had been unsayingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of unsay
First recorded in 1425–75, unsay is from the late Middle English word unsayen. See un- 2, say 1
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
I know that I cannot unsay those words, but please accept my sincerest apologies.”
From Washington Post ● Oct. 25, 2019
Yet he can’t unsay what was said on the audio tape.
From Washington Times ● Jun. 13, 2018
And then they unsay it, and they keep unsaying it, breaking their own rules over and over again.
From The Guardian ● May 13, 2017
Galliano can’t unsay or undo the gross, offensive things that happened two years ago.
From Salon ● Jan. 18, 2013
Now that I’ve thought it and said it, I can’t unthink it and unsay it.
From "The Sun Is Also a Star" by Nicola Yoon
Lethem’s revisionist project ultimately unsays as much as it says.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 28, 2023
Do not accuse him of falsehood because he unsays on a Tuesday the words he said on the Monday.
From The Life of Cicero Volume II. by Anthony Trollope
She unsays her words, she gives herself the lie, she says to the children, “Be old!”
From La Sorcière: The Witch of the Middle Ages by Jules Michelet
Mr. Hughes forgets—or does he forget?—that in the sequel to this poem, entitled Sixty Years After, Tennyson unsays all the high-pitched dispraise of Amy and her squire.
From Flowers of Freethought (Second Series) by G. W. (George William) Foote
Besides which, he is grown moral, and unsays all his former good things.
From Library of the World's Best Literature, Ancient and Modern — Volume 1 by Lucia Isabella Gilbert Runkle
And with that veil ripped off, every emotion they didn’t let themselves feel, every word left unsaid, every last regret, all become instantly magnified, sprawling out before them on an endless road.
From Salon ● Aug. 24, 2026
Left unsaid was whether Tehran is prepared to permanently drop its demand that it should be able to collect tolls from transiting commercial vessels and if those negotiations would lead to a fully reopened waterway.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 2, 2026
Or is that a conversation better left unsaid?
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 23, 2026
Left unsaid was the fact that Steyer’s firm had extensive financial ties to San Diego’s Accredited Home Lenders, one of the biggest subprime mortgage lenders in the country.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 6, 2026
“Had I paid attention to numbers, General ...” Lee left the rest unsaid.
From "The Killer Angels: The Classic Novel of the Civil War" by Michael Shaara
And then they unsay it, and they keep unsaying it, breaking their own rules over and over again.
From The Guardian ● May 13, 2017
"I unsay every word," said Mr. Merridew, for the second time, and more pointedly than ever; for, even in his really generous emotion, he could not help feeling that it was unsaying a great deal.
From Denis Dent A Novel by Ernest W. Hornung
Highness has a manner to-night which disconcerts me by its novelty; a saying things and then unsaying them; suggesting and then, somehow, treading down the suggestion like a spark of your lightning.
From Limbo and Other Essays To which is now added Ariadne in Mantua by Vernon Lee
They had appeared in too many instances; and, though frightened at his anger, she stood still, without unsaying her words.
From The Daisy chain, or Aspirations by Charlotte Mary Yonge
Time and again in her heart of hearts had she planned how those unsaying words should be said, and said just as soon as ever he came, but he came rather soon and suddenly.
From A Tame Surrender, A Story of The Chicago Strike by Charles King
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.
