Take with a grain of salt In english explanation

The meaning, explanation, definition and origin of the idiom/phrase "take with a grain of salt", English Idiom Dictionary ( also found in Vietnamese )

Mia Le

2021-02-10 03:02

Meaning of Take with a grain of salt

Synonyms:

take with a pinch of salt

Take with a grain of salt British American verb phrase

If you take something with a grain of salt, you have a skeptical attitude to it.

I take the news that she told with a grain of salt.

Beany posted on Facebook that he's got the first prize of the Spelling Bee contest, however, I take it with a grain of salt.

John's friends often takes what he says with a grain of salt because he has a habit of exaggerating.

Grammar and Usage of Take with a grain of salt

Verb Forms

taken with a grain of salt
takes with a grain of salt
taking with a grain of salt
took with a grain of salt

The verb "take" should be conjugated according to its tense.

Origin of Take with a grain of salt

Pliny the Elder's Naturalis Historia (77 A.D) may be the origin of the phrase to telling about the discovery of a recipe for an antidote to a poison. In the antidote, one of the ingredients was a grain of salt. Threats involving the poison were thus to be taken "with a grain of salt", and therefore less seriously.

The phrase has been in use in English since the 17th century; for example, in the English religious commentator John Trapp's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments, 1647:

"This is to be taken with a grain of salt."

The Origin Cited: The Phrase Finder - The meaning and origin of the expression: Take with a grain of salt