with a grain of salt
Adverb

with a grain of salt

  1. (idiomatic) With a little common sense and skepticism.
    I take anything I read on the Internet with a grain of salt.
    • 2008, John Douglas, Johnny Dodd, Inside the Mind of BTK: The True Story Behind the Thirty-Year Hunt for the Notorious Wichita Serial Killer, John Wiley & Sons (ISBN 9780470437681):
      In it, police laid out list of biographical factoids about BTK and urged residents to read it with a grain of salt. Releasing a list of his “claims,” they reasoned, might allow someone, somewhere to make a connection that police couldn't hope to.
Translations
  • French: avec des pincettes
  • German: mit einem Körnchen Salz
  • Italian: col sale in zucca, con un po' di sale in zucca
  • Portuguese: cum grano salis
  • Russian: (adverb) скепти́чески
  • Spanish: coger con pinzas, tomar con pinzas, tomar con reservas, creer la mitad, con un grano de sal



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