give the devil his due
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Verb[edit]
give the devil his due (third-person singular simple present gives the devil his due, present participle giving the devil his due, simple past gave the devil his due, past participle given the devil his due)
- (idiomatic, informal) To acknowledge the positive qualities of a person who is unpleasant or disliked.
- c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Fourth, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii]:
- […] for he was never yet a breaker of
proverbs: he will give the devil his due.
- 1821, Sir Walter Scott, chapter 4, in Kenilworth:
- Yet give the devil his due; Says grace before he doth a deed of villainy.
- 1922, Zane Grey, chapter 5, in The Day of the Beast:
- And to give the devil his due he's finer than ever. Too damn fine for this crowd!
- 2007 April 5, Richard Schickel, "The Fog of War Resistance" (film review), Time:
- We are obliged, at least this once, to give the devil his due — and to consider the possibility that he may even be, in this instance, the angel of bleak truthfulness.
References[edit]
- “give the devil his due”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.