Idiom
call a spade a spade
Meaning
To put it bluntly, to be outspoken; to speak the truth, to describe things as they really are.
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Examples
“He always calls a spade a spade, even when it hurts.”
“You should call a spade a spade if you want people to trust you.”
“They call a spade a spade when they discuss the poor quality of the food.”
“During the meeting, she decided to call a spade a spade and told the team that the project was failing.”
“I appreciate that our new manager prefers to call a spade a spade instead of hiding the budget problems behind confusing corporate language.”
“We need a friend who will call a spade a spade and tell us if this business idea is actually going to work.”
“Rather than masking the harsh reality with polite euphemisms, the veteran journalist preferred to call a spade a spade in his final report.”
Examples
simple
“He always calls a spade a spade, even when it hurts.”
“You should call a spade a spade if you want people to trust you.”
“They call a spade a spade when they discuss the poor quality of the food.”
contextual
“During the meeting, she decided to call a spade a spade and told the team that the project was failing.”
“I appreciate that our new manager prefers to call a spade a spade instead of hiding the budget problems behind confusing corporate language.”
“We need a friend who will call a spade a spade and tell us if this business idea is actually going to work.”
complex
“Rather than masking the harsh reality with polite euphemisms, the veteran journalist preferred to call a spade a spade in his final report.”
Origin
A mistaken translation of Ancient Greek τὰ σῦκα σῦκα, τὴν σκάφην δὲ σκάφην ὀνομάσων (tà sûka sûka, tḕn skáphēn dè skáphēn onomásōn, “calling figs figs, and a trough a trough”). The word σκάφη (skáphē, “trough”) was mistranslated by the Renaissance scholar Desiderius Erasmus as σκαφείον (skapheíon, “digging tool”).
Key words
Related idioms
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