benefit of the doubt
English
Alternative forms
- BOTD (initialism)
- benefit of doubt (rare)
Pronunciation
Audio (AU): (file)
Noun
- A favorable judgement given in the absence of full evidence.
- 2019 May 19, Alex McLevy, “The final Game Of Thrones brings a pensive but simple meditation about stories (newbies)”, in The A.V. Club[1]:
- Plenty of past seasons’ events could look ill-conceived in the critical eye of Monday-morning quarterbacking, but previously, the show had earned the benefit of the doubt that missteps on the part of supposedly intelligent characters were a plausible lack of in-world foresight.
- (cricket) The principle employed by umpires in cases of uncertainty concerning a batsman possibly being out, in which the decision must be in the batsman's favour.
Usage notes
Almost always used with the verb "give" as in "to give someone the benefit of the doubt".
Translations
a favorable judgement given in the absence of full evidence
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