acknowledge the corn
English
Etymology
An American expression. In a Congressional debate in 1828 one of the states which claimed to export corn admitted that the corn was actually used to feed hogs, and exported in that form. - Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable 1970 Centenary Edition.
Pronunciation
Audio (AU): (file)
Verb
acknowledge the corn
- (idiomatic) To admit to the truth of the point at issue or to a mistake; to cop a plea; or perhaps to admit to a small error but not a larger one.
- 1846, Jesse Speight, address to the U.S. Senate:
- I hope he will give up the argument, or to use a familiar phrase acknowledge the corn.
- 1859, J. Underwood, letter to the editor, Samuel W. Cole (editor), The New England Farmer, Volume 11,
- I should like to take a job of that kind on a wager with him, or any other New Hampshire man, and if I did not come out a little ahead on the "home stretch," why then I would "acknowledge the corn," and own myself beaten.
- 1880, Parliament of Canada, Official report of the debates of the House of Commons of the Dominion of Canada:
- Will the hon. gentleman acknowledge the corn? He does not do it. He is non-committal.
- 1892, The American magazine,
- They had simply to "acknowledge the corn," round up, and — "vamoose"; then, so soon as the soldiers had gone back to the fort, there was no law to prevent their returning.
- 1846, Jesse Speight, address to the U.S. Senate: