English Explanatory Dictionary

sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me

English dictionary entry

Meanings

phrase
  1. A response to taunting proclaiming the speaker's indifference.

Pronunciation

Audiomass-output-sticksnstones.wav

Word forms

sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me sticks and stones sticks and stones may break my bones sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never harm me sticks and stones will break my bones, but words will never hurt me sticks and stones will break my bones, but words will never harm me

Etymology

The earliest recording dates from March 1862 in the US, but is implied to have been used earlier.

Synonyms

the pen is mightier than the sword

Antonyms

the tongue wounds more than a lance

Related words

don't feed the troll
This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.
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