GIVE THE DEVIL HIS DUE Definition & Meaning

Give the devil his due

Admit it when there is some good even in a person you dislike. This saying appears in Don Quixote, by Miguel de Cervantes .

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Idioms and Phrases

Give credit to what is good in a disagreeable or disliked person. For example, I don't like John's views on education, but give the devil his due, he always has something important to say , or I don't like what the new management has done, but give the devil his due, sales have improved . [Late 1500s]

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Example Sentences

Examples have not been reviewed.

You’ve got to give the devil his due.

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Writing in a 2007 cable released by WikiLeaks, then-U.S. ambassador to Harare Christopher Dell reflected the views of many: “To give the devil his due, he is a brilliant tactician.”

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Pope Francis has called for a rewriting of the Lord's Prayer, saying the current translation gives God a bad name and, essentially, does not give the devil his due.

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Everyone has made sport of this line, but give the devil his due: In certain ways sexual predation actually was the culture in the years when Weinstein came of age, in the entertainment industry and the wider society it influenced and mirrored.

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So let’s give the devil his due.

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

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