English Explanatory Dictionary

honesty is the best policy

English dictionary entry

Meanings

proverb
  1. Honesty is preferable as a course of action because it tends to work out best in the end.

Word forms

honesty is the best policy

Etymology

Attested since the early 1600s. Policy had the meaning of ‘shrewdness, cunning’ and ‘trick, stratagem’ at the time, so that the saying was originally an oxymoron in the same vein as attack is the best form of defence.

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