to putting words in someone's mouth
1
8.0
- idiom
- Informal
:
atribuir palabras a alguien
- I can't ever put words in her mouth, of course, or say what she would say even in the most ideal of circumstances.
Examples
-
And if they put stupid words in her mouth—words that have never been linked to her—they will believe that, too.
Blog text (9) -
You are putting words in her mouth when you claim to know exactly what choice she was referring to.
Blog text (18) -
Alan, if you give me an example of when I have put words in people's mouths, you are right.
Blog text (14) -
You make assumptions and put words in people's mouths.
Blog text (14) -
Gabriel has been projecting platitudes onto Lily and risks putting words in her mouth.
Academic text (1991) -
He knew that if Sarah decided to use any of the tapes at the trial, he had to be extremely careful not to look as though he was putting words in Laurie's mouth.
Fiction book (1992) -
I attempted to infer a Keynesian explanation for this that Krugman did not provide, but now I think it is probably a bad idea to try to put words in Krugman's mouth.
Blog text (9) -
You are putting words in her mouth when you claim to know exactly what choice she was referring to.
-
I don't want to put words in her mouth, but I think she thinks this is the best place for you right now.
-
I'm not going to put words in her mouth.
Synonyms
71
6.9
Give a false story about someone or something to trick people
3
5.5
Repeat someone's words in the wrong way
1
7.4
To say someone wrote or did something when they did not
Surface Forms
Morphology
put + words + in + someone's + mouth
The meaning 'to claim someone said something they did not' is directly inferable from the literal image of placing words into someone's mouth — if words are in their mouth, they must have said them. This compositional metaphor is cross-linguistically common and follows a clear verb + object + prepositional phrase pattern, so a B1 learner who knows the constituents will likely deduce the intended meaning.
Etymology
Putting words in someone's mouth comes from the image of someone putting words into another person's mouth, as if making them say things they did not choose. That's why the phrase means 'to claim that someone said something they did not say'.