Devil's Advocate

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• 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 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 — 1760, translating L. advocatus diaboli, one whose job it is to urge against the canonization of a candidate for sainthood. [F]ar from being the whitewasher of the wicked, the [devil s advocate] is the blackener of the good. [Fowler] …   Etymology 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 …   The small dictionary of idiomes

• devil's advocate — is someone who argues against a proposition or belief in order to test it. It should not be used to mean someone who supports a bad or wicked cause. Its origin lies in the Roman Catholic official (in Latin advocatus diaboli) who tests the case… …   Modern English usage

• devil’s advocate — [n] mediator apologist, pleader, polemicist, sophist; concepts 348,423 …   New thesaurus

• devil's advocate — ► NOUN ▪ a person who expresses a contentious opinion in order to provoke debate …   English terms dictionary

• devil's advocate — n. [transl. of ML advocatus diaboli] 1. R.C.Ch. an official selected to examine the facts critically and raise objections in the case of a dead person named for beatification or canonization 2. a person who upholds what is regarded as the wrong… …   English World dictionary

• Devil's advocate — For other uses, see Devil s advocate (disambiguation). In common parlance, a devil s advocate is someone who, given a certain argument, takes a position he or she does not necessarily agree with, just for the sake of argument. In taking such… …   Wikipedia

• 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