Dictionary.com
Thesaurus.com
Synonyms

call a spade a spade

Cultural  

  1. To speak directly and bluntly; to avoid euphemism: “The prosecutor said, ‘Let's call a spade a spade. You didn't borrow the money, you stole it.’”

call a spade a spade Idioms  

  1. Speak frankly and bluntly, be explicit, as in You can always trust Mary to call a spade a spade. This term comes from a Greek saying, call a bowl a bowl, that was mistranslated into Latin by Erasmus and came into English in the 1500s. Also see tell it like it is.

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Call a spade a spade here..have a little honesty.

From New York Times • Jan. 27, 2016

Call a spade a spade: Everybody’s focused on sustainable and inclusive growth.

From New York Times • Jan. 21, 2015

Call a spade a spade, not a well known oblong instrument of manual husbandry.

From The Style Book of The Detroit News by News, The Detroit

"Call a spade a spade, Robin," she advised.

From The Hidden Places by Sinclair, Bertrand W.

Call a spade a spade, not a well-known oblong instrument of manual husbandry; let home be home, not a residence; a place a place, not a locality; and so of the rest.

From The Verbalist A Manual Devoted to Brief Discussions of the Right and the Wrong Use of Words and to Some Other Matters of Interest to Those Who Would Speak and Write with Propriety. by Osmun, Thomas Embly

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.