phrase

• In a way (used to be less precise)

  ‘areas that have been, as it were, pushed aside’

  More example sentences

  • ‘Some of the young stags early in a hunt may turn and stand at bay for short periods as a sort of posturing, as it were, to the hounds.’
  • ‘It is clearly more powerful if you can identify a trend, because one rises above the individual dispute, as it were.’
  • ‘Not really hungry, the trio dined early and lightly, eating, as it were, out of habit rather than desire.’
  • ‘Also in Eire, there's a scheme for paying a living wage to artists once they have proved themselves, as it were.’
  • ‘Like racoons, they have found niches in urban areas, living in our trash, as it were.’
  • ‘I was feeling truly at odds with the world, in it, but not of it, as it were.’
  • ‘Instead of me trying to get inside Harry's head, as it were, he started getting inside mine.’
  • ‘He was told what the terms were and he, as it were, gave his blessing.’
  • ‘All it seems to do, though, is set out a number of procedural steps, as it were.’
  • ‘This book, not scholarly by any manner of means, takes us on a cultural excursion, as it were.’

  Synonyms

  so to speak, in a manner of speaking, in a way, in some way or other, to some extent, so to say

  View synonyms