To not mince words:
Inflected Form(s): minced; minc·ing
Etymology: Middle English, from Anglo-French mincer, from Vulgar Latin *minutiare, from Latin minutia smallness — more at minutia
Date: 14th century
1: to say what you mean clearly and directly, even if you upset people by doing this.
Barack Obama in September 2002:
"I don’t oppose all wars. What I am opposed to is a dumb war. What I am opposed to is a rash war. What I am opposed to is the cynical attempt by Richard Perle and Paul Wolfowitz and other armchair, weekend warriors in this administration to shove their own ideological agendas down our throats, irrespective of the costs in lives lost and in hardships borne."
