🇯🇵Japanese Source WordCode: JA

割り引いて聞く

Pronunciation / Transliteration: waribiite kiku

🇬🇧 Direct English Meaning:
Take with a grain of salt/teɪk wɪð ə ɡreɪn ɒv sɔːlt/
verb phraseCEFR B2 (Upper)Top #3450 frequency
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🇯🇵 Example Sentence in Japanese:

"彼の話は割り引いて聞く必要がある。"

Comprehensive Definitions & Senses

2 senses
As verb phrase
  1. 1

    To view something with skepticism or not interpret it as completely truthful or accurate.

    "You should take his wild claims about his business success with a grain of salt."
  2. 2

    To accept a piece of information while maintaining reservations about its reliability.

    "Statistics reported on social media should always be taken with a grain of salt."

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Antonyms & Contrasting Words (1)

Linguistic Origin & Historical Etymology

Derived from the Latin phrase 'cum grano salis', found in Pliny the Elder's Naturalis Historia around 77 AD, where salt was viewed as an antidote to poison and metaphorically used to imply that a statement should be swallowed with a dose of skepticism or critical caution. The expression entered English usage in the 17th century, shifting from its original medicinal sense to a general idiom denoting doubt about the absolute truth of information.

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