to play devil's advocate

См. также в других словарях:

• play devil's advocate — to pretend to be against an idea or plan which a lot of people support in order to make people discuss it in more detail and think about it more carefully. I don t think he was really in favour of getting rid of the scheme, he was just playing… …   New idioms dictionary

• play devil's advocate — play/be/devil’s advocate phrase to pretend to disagree with someone in order to start an argument or interesting discussion Thesaurus: to pretend to do or feel somethingsynonym Main entry: devil s advocate …   Useful english dictionary

• Devil's advocate (disambiguation) — Devil s advocate, originally referred to a canon lawyer in the Roman Catholic Church appointed to argue against the canonization or beatification of a person. Devil s Advocate may also refer to: The Devil s Advocate, a novel by Andrew Neiderman… …   Wikipedia

• devil's advocate — n someone who pretends to disagree with you in order to have a good discussion about something ▪ He would play devil s advocate with anyone …   Dictionary of contemporary English

• devil's advocate — noun someone who takes the worse side just for the sake of argument • Hypernyms: ↑debater, ↑arguer * * * noun, pl ⋯ cates [count] : a person who expresses an opinion that disagrees with others so that there will be an interesting discussion about …   Useful english dictionary

• devil's advocate —    If someone plays Devil s advocate in an argument, they adopt a position they don t believe in just for the sake of the argument   (Dorking School Dictionary)    ***    During a discussion or debate, if you play devil s advocate, you pretend to …   English Idioms & idiomatic expressions

• devil's advocate — N UNCOUNT: also with det If you play devil s advocate in a discussion or debate, you express an opinion which you may not agree with but which is very different to what other people have been saying, in order to make the argument more interesting …   English dictionary

• play devil's advocate — feign disagreement with an issue in order to provoke discussion …   English contemporary dictionary

• devil's advocate — noun play/be devil s advocate to pretend to disagree with someone in order to start an argument or interesting discussion …   Usage of the words and phrases in modern English

• DEVIL'S ADVOCATE — (Roget s 3 Superthesaurus) n. one who argues for but doesn t necessarily agree with the unpopular side of an issue in order to illustrate all perspectives. Talk show hosts often play the devil s advocate for argument s sake. SYN.: pleader,… …   English dictionary for students

• devil's advocate — UK / US noun play/be devil s advocate to pretend to disagree with someone in order to start an argument or interesting discussion …   English dictionary