quote-unquote

British

interjection

an expression used before or part before and part after a quotation to identify it as such, and sometimes to dissociate the writer or speaker from it

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

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.

“Everyone is mad at us—the quote-unquote rich people on Baxter Road,” said William Cohan, a journalist and former banker.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 8, 2026

Madigan: Well, I can’t say that I’ve read 1,500 books about alchemy and quote-unquote witchcraft and things like that.

From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 19, 2026

“That’s how I got here was doing that. I got away from it a little bit, tried to quote-unquote ‘throw strikes,’ and when you do that, it leads to results that are not desirable.

From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 29, 2025

And it’s because they’re humans and not just quote-unquote Vietnamese people that we’ve been told growing up.

From Salon • May 20, 2024

And I say quote-unquote because it’s super rare that I can pay him back, and he doesn’t care.

From "What If It's Us" by Becky Albertalli and Adam Silvera

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023