speak one's mind

English

Pronunciation

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Verb

speak one's mind (third-person singular simple present speaks one's mind, present participle speaking one's mind, simple past spoke one's mind, past participle spoken one's mind)

1. (idiomatic) To state one's thoughts or opinions honestly or frankly.

   Synonym: speak one's conscience

   • 1847 December, Ellis Bell [pseudonym; Emily Brontë], Wuthering Heights: […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Thomas Cautley Newby, […], →OCLC:

     [H]e would speak his mind, and lecture her all the same as if she were a little girl.

   • 1921, Arthur Scott Bailey, chapter 13, in The Tale of Mrs. Ladybug:

     It was seldom that Mrs. Ladybug hesitated to speak her mind right out to a person if she happened to disapprove of him.

   • 2007 April 12, Joe Klein, “President Fuhgeddaboutit”, in Time‎^[1], archived from the original on 26 January 2012:

     Rudy Giuliani […] spoke his mind and did not suffer fools even a tiny bit—but then, creative incivility is part of the job description for a successful mayor of New York.

Translations

to state one's thoughts honestly or frankly

• Finnish: puhua suunsa puhtaaksi, avautua (fi), avata suunsa
• German: offen seine Meinung sagen
• Hungarian: ami a szívén, az a száján (literally “whatever is on one's heart is on one's mouth”)
• Icelandic: láta vaða um súðum
• Italian: esprimere la propria opinione, parlare francamente
• Japanese: 心のうちを明かす (kokoronouchi-wo-akasu)
• Polish: przemawiać własnym głosem impf, przemówić własnym głosem pf
• Portuguese: não ter papas na língua
• Spanish: decir lo que uno piensa

See also

• give somebody a piece of one's mind