Devil’s advocate is an idiom that refers to someone who argues a contrary view, either for the sake of argument or to help test out how rigorous a position is. For example, a team of lawyers might get one of their number to play devil’s advocate and attack the team’s legal position to see how strong it is.
The idea of a devil’s advocate dates back to the late 16th century in the Roman Catholic Church. During the process of canonization (i.e., proclaiming someone to be a “saint”), an advocatus diaboli (devil’s advocate) was appointed to argue against the canonization in order to test and challenge the evidence supporting sainthood.
Examples: Devil’s advocate in a sentenceAs the argument grew more heated, Melanie recognized what was happening; Nigel was up to his old tricks again, playing devil’s advocate just for the fun of the argument.
Adele was given the task of playing devil’s advocate as the prosecution team did a final check on their case.
Some psychologists suggest that a devil’s advocate is not an effective tool for testing a position because they are not expressing genuinely held views.
When something is a piece of cake, it is very easy to do. Piece of cake is an example of an idiom (i.e., a phrase or group of words that has a meaning that isn’t immediately obvious from a literal reading of the words).
Nobody really knows where the phrase comes from. Various theories range from enslaved people in the southern US to British Army uses. In American English there is a theme of desserts or sweet things being equated with a simple task (e.g., “as easy as pie,” or a “cakewalk”).
Examples: Piece of cake in a sentenceAlthough Eric was worried the math test would be difficult, it turned out to be a piece of cake.
The level of ability in the contestants was very varied: some struggled with the task, but others found it to be a piece of cake.
The irony was delicious: no sooner had Pete said “This is a piece of cake!” then he fell flat on his face!
The English idiom take it with a grain of salt means “treat information with a degree of skepticism and doubt.” It is a slightly muted way of saying that you do not find the source of the information to be trustworthy.
Examples: Take it with a grain of saltMy advice with any election communication is to take it with a grain of salt.
As with any advertising claim, it is always best to take it with a grain of salt and check out the details.
Some people call me cynical and disbelieving, but experience has taught me that when faced with something that appears too good to be true, it is best to take it with a grain of salt.
Rule of thumb is an idiom that describes a common-sense but approximate way of deciding on a course of action. Tradespeople will often know the span of their hands and the length of their thumbs and use them as a rough-and-ready way of measuring. So rule of thumb became a way of describing a rough guideline.
Examples: Rule of thumbWhen you are writing an essay for an examination, a good rule of thumb is to spend 25 to 30 percent of the time available on planning.
If you want to turn square feet into square meters, a good rule of thumb is to divide by ten.
When it comes to providing the customer with an estimate, you need to measure accurately, as rule of thumb measurements can be way off.
The idiomplay it by ear dates back at least to the 17th century. It comes from the world of music and refers to playing an instrument not from sheet music or memory but responding to the situation.
Instruments like the violin and cello have to be played by ear, even when using sheet music, because there are no marked notes on the fingerboard, and they can go out of tune mid-performance.
As an idiom, play it by ear means not having a plan and responding to events as they unfold. It can have positive or negative connotations. In the positive sense, it means staying flexible and not rigidly sticking to a plan. In the negative sense, it means being unprepared and taking a chance that you will get away with it.
Examples: Play it by earWith interactive lessons where the students participate, the teacher has to have the confidence to play it by ear because you never know what will happen next.
Having learned to play the piano from sheet music, the next big step was to be able to play it by ear.
We used to book hotels in advance for our road trips, but now we are more carefree and play it by ear as we go.
Fortune favors the bold is an idiom that suggests that taking risks will pay off. It comes from a Latin phrase audentes fortuna iuvat that dates back millenia. It encourages the listener not to be fatalistic and instead to make audacious decisions.
Examples: Fortune favors the bold in a sentenceBelieving that fortune favors the bold, Róisín quit her day job to pursue her interior design dreams.
They say that fortune favors the bold, and sometimes history seems to back that up.
It’s impossible to know just how many dreams have come crashing down because someone wrongly believed that fortune favors the bold was some sort of guarantee.
Rags to riches is an idiom describing someone’s change in fortunes from poverty to wealth. It is rarely used in a completely literal sense for someone who was actually living in rags but can describe a more general improvement in circumstances.
When used as an adjective, the phrase uses hyphens (e.g., “a rags-to-riches tale”).
Rags to riches examplesNot many authors go from rags to riches, and in fact most never even land a book deal.
These days, social media is full of influencers showing you how they succeeded in pursuing rags to riches in their particular field.
It was the classic Hollywood rags-to-riches story of being a busboy one day to a leading man the next.
The whole nine yards is an idiom that means “the fullest possible extent” of something. Perhaps no other English idiom is shrouded in more mystery as to its origins. So while we know what the idiom means figuratively, we don’t know what its literal meaning was.
The whole nine yards examplesAlison was never one for doing things by halves, and, as usual, she had gone the whole nine yards with this dinner party.
The sergeant major didn’t hold back with the new recruits and gave them the whole nine yards with his appraisal of their marching skills.
It was an all-you-can-eat menu, and Gareth showed his commitment by going the whole nine yards.
Diamond in the rough is an idiom that refers to something of great value that, at first sight, appears to be unremarkable. In British English, it is more common to hear the idiom “rough diamond.”
The idiom comes from the world of diamonds, where the stones, as they are found in their natural state, don’t have the spectacular beauty of the gems we are familiar with from jewelry.
Diamond in the rough examplesHarry was a real diamond in the rough; his friends knew that behind his rough exterior, he was a faithful and loyal friend.
Stephanie was one of the best HR executives around, with a canny knack of spotting diamonds in the rough in the deluge of job applicants.
Her voice was like a diamond in the rough; it possessed a natural beauty that would only get better with careful work and training.
Cut to the chase is an idiom that means “get to the point quickly.” There’s no definitive evidence for where the phrase comes from, but the generally accepted view is that it is from the early days of Hollywood, where it would indicate a script direction to cut to a chase scene.
It carries with it the idea of getting to the important part of a discussion and of removing any dishonesty or obfuscation.
Examples: Cut to the chaseThe CEO looked around the conference table and asked, “Let’s cut to the chase. What are our losses?”
There was no point in wasting time with excuses, so Jen cut to the chase and told her boss what had happened.
Sometimes it’s nice to flesh out a story with details, but sometimes you just need to cut to the chase.
