economical with the truth

Meaning: (idiomatic,euphemistic)Nottellingthewholetruth, especially in order to present afalseimageof a situation;untruthful;lying.Often used withsarcasmorsatire.I would be beingeconomical with the truthif I were to tell you that I was enjoying myself.1987,Andrew Kakabadse, Ron Ludlow, Susan Vinnicombe,Working in Organisations, Aldershot, Hants:Gower,→ISBN:A senior British civil servant, arguing that the book ‘Spycatcher’ should not be published, let slip how ‘beingeconomical with the truth’ is an option in matters of government policy. The phrase became a headline in Australia, highlighting, as much as anything, British duplicity. In fact, it originated with Edmund Burke, the eighteenth century statesman and constitutional theorist.[…]In effect, the idea of ‘beingeconomical with the truth’ underlines the challenge any manager or public servant faces – that unguarded, inappropriate, or even appropriate comment can lead to damaging and undesirable reactions.2013November 6,House of Commons Treasury Committee (UK),Project Verde(HC 728-II (incorporating HC 300, Session 2013–14)), volume II, London:The Stationery Office Ltd., published23 October 2014,→ISBN, pageEv 85:So, I am now asking you, was heeconomical with the truth? Bearing in mind you are now telling us that there were heaps of telephone conversations, things that you described elsewhere as “lovely” conversations, “nice” conversations, “interesting” conversations and that when politicians ring you, you take notice.2016, Ian Garden,Battling with the Truth: The Contrast in the Media Reporting of World War II,[Stroud, Gloucestershire]:The History Press,→ISBN:There was one overriding technique used by both sides to dupe the public, and it was the deliberate omission of key information about any demoralising incident, operation or battle, such as facts about their own or even the enemy's losses.[…]This approach can probably be best described as ‘beingeconomical with the truth’ – a phrase whose literal meaning has rather been lost over the years, as it has rather erroneously come to signify telling outright lies.

Examples:

EN: He's economical with the truth. Everyone is.
ES: El adapta su verdad, como todo el mundo.
EN: I had the distinct impression every one of them was being economical with the truth.
ES: Tengo una clara impresión de que eran muy ahorrativos con la verdad.
EN: Let's just be economical with the truth.
ES: Mejor no decir toda la verdad.
EN: Been a little economical with the truth with one of our fine Australian policemen, Chief Inspector.
ES: Fue escueto con la verdad con uno de los mejores policías australianos, Inspector jefe.
EN: I'll be economical with the truth until I get out.
ES: Seré reservada con la verdad hasta que salga.
EN: - India. - The economical with the truth.
ES: - ¿La cumbre económica?
EN: I may have been a little economical with the truth as regards this, but... Stop her, Veil!
ES: Ya sé que la verdad te ha hecho mucho daño, pero detenla Veil.
EN: Glazebrook's a dipsomaniac and Merrill may have been economical with the truth?
ES: Glazebrook es dipsómano Y Merrill debe haber sido avaro con la verdad.
EN: He's paying us to be economical with the truth.
ES: Nos pagan por adornar la verdad.
EN: I was merely being economical with the truth, and that's altogether different.
ES: Solo estaba ocultando una verdad. Y eso es totalmente diferente.
EN: OK, I was economical with the truth.
ES: Está bien, fui económico con la verdad.
EN: I might have been a tad economical with the truth, but he has been under the weather recently.
ES: No quería decirle la verdad pero me preguntó recientemente.
EN: So don't think of it as lying. Think of it as being economical with the truth.
ES: No lo consideres mentir, sino ser económico con la verdad.
EN: I admit I've been economical with the truth.
ES: Admito que estuve ahorrativo con la verdad.
EN: I mean, consecutive governments have been economical with the truth about immigration, we know that.
ES: Quiero decir, los gobiernos consecutivos han sido económicos con la verdad sobre la inmigración, lo sabemos.

Note: the examples for non latin scripts have a high likelihood of mistakes, we do not own any of this data and it is sourced from Wiktionary, the NLLB database and Opensubtitles. Please help us improve this by contributing correct examples. We will be working to fix this issue over time however it is a bigger issue due to the the difficulties in dealing with non latin scripts and grammatical structures(non-romantic/european languages have lower resources as well ).