speak now or forever hold your peace
2
8.5
- idiom
- Formal
:
habla ahora o calla para siempre
- At the end of the meeting, the chairperson said, 'speak now or forever hold your peace.'
- let them speak now or forever hold their peace
Examples
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If no one objects, I'll proceed; so speak now or forever hold your peace.
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This is your opportunity to bring up any concerns—speak now or forever hold your peace.
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Please speak now or forever hold your peace!
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If anyone has objections, please speak now or forever hold your peace!
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Therefore, if anyone here has reasons why these two should not be married, speak now or forever hold your peace.
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If anyone knows why this wedding should not take place, let them speak now or forever hold your peace.
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If anyone has reason to object to their blessed union, please speak now or forever hold your peace.
Synonyms
6
7.7
Tell someone to do what they say or stop talking
Antonyms
Surface Forms
Morphology
speak + now + or + forever + hold + your + peace
The first part 'speak now' is fully transparent, but the idiomatic phrase 'hold your peace' (meaning 'remain silent') is archaic and not directly derivable from 'hold' + 'peace' by a B1 learner. The overall meaning (state objections now or remain silent forever) can be partly inferred from the contrastive structure, but the specific phrasing is semi-idiomatic, so partial prior exposure or explanation is needed.
Etymology
Speak now or forever hold your peace may come from old church weddings where the person leading the service asked if anyone had an objection. If someone had a problem they had to speak now or else hold their peace, which meant 'keep quiet', so today it means 'say any objections now or remain silent forever'.