What it means
Means you shouldn't fully buy what someone's saying without a bit of doubt in your pocket. You use it for gossip, bold claims, PR fluff, or anything that sounds a touch too polished. In British English people often say take it with a pinch of salt, but it means the same thing.
Usage examples
"He says the project’s definitely on track. Take it with a grain of salt, he said the same thing right before the last deadline blew up."
"Take the latest gossip from the village hall meeting of the parish council of West Sussex with a grain of salt, the source is the same retired teacher who confidently announced last spring that the new bypass would open in September, and the contractors have only just finished the second of four planned phases of the project."
"My uncle from Vancouver Island takes the weather forecast of the national television service with a grain of salt every morning of the autumn season, the storms of the Pacific coast of British Columbia tend to ignore the precise schedule of the meteorologists of the Toronto studios of the network."
"Yeah, he says he's mates with the promoter and can get us backstage. Take that with a grain of salt."
"Take her TikTok life updates with a grain of salt, she edits chaos into luxury for sport."
Where it comes from
It goes back to the Latin phrase cum grano salis, meaning with a grain of salt. English writers were using it by the 1600s, and over time it slipped out of bookish Latin-land into everyday speech. The vibe stayed the same: don't swallow the claim whole, keep a little doubt on standby.
Other ways to say it
This expression also appears in
