Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[dheerajkp1]

What does playing the devil's advocate mean?

What does the the following expression mean: one person's meat is another's poison ?

[bud]

Hi,

Playing devil's advocate according to Cambridge Dictionary:

to pretend to be against an idea or plan which a lot of people support in order to make people discuss it in more detail and think about it more carefully

The 'Advocatus Diaboli' was a person employed by the Roman Catholic church to argue against someone being made a saint (= someone given the honour of being called Saint by the Roman Catholic church).

I don't think he was really in favour of getting rid of the scheme, he was just playing devil's advocate.

I know that most people here support the project, but let me play devil's advocate for a moment and ask if anyone has considered the cost?

one person's meat is another's poison: It means that what one person values, another may find worthless. A synonymous expression is: One man's trash is another man's treasure.

Hope that helps.

[dheerajkp1]

Thanks bud for explaining.