Quote
1. Quote - Listen to the quote and guess what the slang means.
“He’s a really good friend of mine. He pulls no punches, but I admired that.”
- Lisa Marie Presley, Elvis’s daughter, talking about Billy Corgan (of the bands Zwan and Smashing Pumpkins), who helped her with her music.
Definition
1. Definition - Study the definition.
express disapproval without trying to be kind or polite; speak honestly about something without caring about hurting someone’s feelings; criticize something without reservation; make comments on something directly and straightforwardly
2. Use - Learn how the slang is used.
You can use “pulls no punches” to describe someone who is always very honest about what s/he thinks. A person who “pulls punches” is a person who says nice things, when s/he really thinks something sucks. For example, if you tell your mom that you love the meal she cooked for you, but you actually hated it, then you’re “pulling punches.” The expression is most often used when talking about someone who doesn’t care about offending people. That kind of person “pulls no punches.”
Examples
1. Examples - Hear some example sentences.
“My dad pulls no punches when he’s talking about my clothes. He doesn’t like it when I wear short skirts or tight shirts and he always yells at me when I do.”
“Our basketball coach pulls no punches. If we’re playing bad, he tells us we suck.”
“I like movie critics who pull no punches. I want to know if a movie sucks, rather than hearing something that makes a bad movie sound OK.”