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with a grain of salt
Idioms and Phrases
Also, with a pinch of salt . Skeptically, with reservations. For example, I always take Sandy's stories about illnesses with a grain of salt—she tends to exaggerate . This expression is a translation of the Latin cum grano salis , which Pliny used in describing Pompey's discovery of an antidote for poison (to be taken with a grain of salt). It was soon adopted by English writers.Example Sentences
“Taiwan is taking it with a grain of salt. I think there’s an understanding that nice, big, round numbers create bargaining positions, but may not be the final numbers that are agreed on,” said Wen-ti Sung, a political scientist at Australia National University who specializes in cross-strait relations.
James learned to take everything with a grain of salt.
I’m from DOJ and I spent a lot of time there so take this with a grain of salt, but this is humongous in DOJ’s history.
As ever, the “record usage of this platform” boasts should be taken with a grain of salt, but X was undoubtedly a well-trafficked feed of information, both reliable and seriously unreliable, this election cycle.
Any platform, of course, has to be taken with a grain of salt.
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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
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