Idiom
truth be told
Meaning
Used when admitting something one might otherwise lie about, e.g. to keep up appearances or be polite.
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Examples
“Truth be told, I do not like this movie.”
“I said I was busy, but truth be told, I just wanted to stay home and rest.”
“Truth be told, the project was far more difficult than we anticipated, and we struggled to meet the final deadline.”
Examples
simple
“Truth be told, I do not like this movie.”
contextual
“I said I was busy, but truth be told, I just wanted to stay home and rest.”
complex
“Truth be told, the project was far more difficult than we anticipated, and we struggled to meet the final deadline.”
Origin
Ellipsis of if the truth should be told.
Key words
Related idioms
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