little white lie

English

Noun

little white lie (plural little white lies)

  1. Alternative form of white lie
    • 1876 June, Mark Twain, “The Facts Concerning The Recent Carnival Of Crime In Connecticut”, in The Atlantic‎:
      What did you do then? Why, you made me say to myself, 'Ah, it would have been so much kinder and more blameless to ease him off with a little white lie, and send him away feeling that if he could not have bread, the gentle treatment was at least something to be grateful for!'
    • 2000, “Motion Picture Soundtrack”, in Kid A, performed by Radiohead:
      Stop sending letters / Letters always get burned / It's not like the movies / They fed us on little white lies
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