so to speak
English
Alternative forms
- so to say
Adverb
so to speak
- In a manner of speaking.
- 1876, Mark Twain, chapter 4, in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer:
- Then Tom girded up his loins, so to speak, and went to work.
- 1902, Joseph Conrad, Youth:
- This could have occurred nowhere but in England, where men and sea interpenetrate, so to speak.
- 1903, O. Henry, “A Cosmopolitan in a Cafe”, in The Four Million:
- He took the great, round world in his hand, so to speak, familiarly, contemptuously, and it seemed no larger than the seed of a Maraschino cherry in a table d'hôte grape fruit.
- 2019 May 5, James Barron; Colin Moynihan, “Obama Visits Firehouse in Midtown Manhattan”, in New York Times, retrieved 2011 November 24:
- For Firefighter Joseph Ceravolo, President Obama turned up the heat, so to speak, even before he sat down to an early lunch on Thursday.
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Usage notes
Often used to indicate a metaphor or a pun.
Synonyms
- as it were
- in a manner of speaking
Translations
in a manner of speaking
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