devil's advocate
noun, verb
Forms devil's advocates devil's advocating devil's advocated
- noun (idiomatic) One who debates from a viewpoint which one may not actually hold, usually to determine its validity or simply for the sake of argument. “I don't really believe all that – I was just playing devil's advocate.”
- noun (historical, Roman Catholicism) A canon lawyer appointed by the Church to argue against the canonization of the proposed candidate.
- verb (intransitive, informal) To play devil's advocate.
Etymology
Calque of Latin advocātus diabolī (“the devil’s advocate”), a popular title given to the officer dealing with the canonization process in the 16th c.
Sources: Wiktionary — from the Wiktionary entry “devil's advocate”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details