Truth is stranger than fiction

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 421.

Say the truth and shame the devil (say (speak or tell) the truth and shame the devil)

The home truth

To lie through one's teeth

Swap lies

VII. Get yourself familiar with the following proverbs and idioms. Read them in context and try to find out what they mean and what equivalent(s) they may have in your language.

1. I have been visiting the Board of Brokers... and swapping lies with them. (M. Twain, ‘Sketches')

1. Slater wasn't a doctor, he had never been to medical school, he just lied through his teeth and we believed him.

1. I could tell you a few home truths if that's what you're asking. (J. Lindsay, ‘A Local Habitation', ch. 1)

1. Timson: "You're a gentleman... but I must speak the truth... An' shame the devil!" (J. Galsworthy, ‘The Pigeon', act II)

2. Right's right and murder's murder. Tell the truth and shame the devil. That's what I say. (A. Christie, ‘Mrs. McGinty's Dead', ch. 19)

1. 't is strange, but true; for truth is always strange; Stranger than fiction... (G. G. Byron, ‘Don Juan', canto XIV)

the naked truth // nuda veritas

1. He was speaking, as usual, the naked truth. (C. P. Snow, ‘Corridors of Power', ch. XII)

2. Alex was silent. What could you say, what could anyone say, confronted with the naked truth? (A. Hailey, ‘The Moneychangers', part III, ch. 25)

[1] to exaggerate something so much that it is almost not true // It's stretching the truth to say Chris is a born leader, although he does manage people quite well.