advocatus diaboli
Americannoun
noun
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.
It also used to be that an apparatus of inquiry was set in train, including the scrutiny of an advocatus diaboli or "devil's advocate," to test any extraordinary claims.
From Slate • Dec. 18, 2015
The narration of Roman Holiday, Sinclair's latest attack on capitalism, is put in the mouth of an advocatus diaboli: Luke Faber, conservative New Englander. manufacturer and gentleman-driver of racing cars.
From Time Magazine Archive
In Rome the advocatus diaboli, or devil’s advocate, had been established as early as 1587 to test the evidence adduced in support of the miracles claimed for those proposed for canonization.
From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton
Thus you become an advocatus diaboli by setting up the success, the fact, as your idol: whereas the fact is always dull, at all times more like calf than a god.
From Thoughts Out of Season (Part II) by Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm
Discussion of the eternal servant problem is apt to be one-sided; it was quite time that we heard from the advocatus diaboli.
From Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 152, February 14, 1917 by Seaman, Owen, Sir
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.
