be too good to be true
To be so exciting, pleasing, or ideal as to be unbelievable. I knew the asking price for that house was too good to be true. It turns out the bank forgot to add a zero to the end when they listed it. I had to ask them to repeat their salary offer because it was just too good to be true! My wife is smart, funny, compassionate, beautiful—I just feel like she is too good to be true sometimes.
too good to be true
So exciting or pleasing as to be unbelievable. The asking price for that house was indeed too good to be true—the bank made a mistake when they listed it. I had to ask them to repeat their salary offer because it just seemed too good to be true!
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2024 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.
*too good to be true
almost unbelievable; so good as to be unbelievable. (*Typically: be ~; become ~; get~.) The news was too good to be true. When I finally got a big raise, it was too good to be true.
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs. © 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
too good to be true
So excellent that it defies belief, as in She loves all her in-laws? That's too good to be true. This term expresses the skeptical view that something so seemingly fine must have something wrong with it. The term was part of the title of Thomas Lupton's Sivquila; Too Good to be True (1580).
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. Copyright © 2003, 1997 by The Christine Ammer 1992 Trust. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
too ˌgood to be ˈtrue
used to say that you cannot believe that something is as good as it seems: ‘I’m afraid you were quoted the wrong price.’ ‘I thought it was too good to be true.’Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary © Farlex 2017
too good to be true
Exaggeratedly optimistic; seeming so wonderful that something must be wrong with it. This cautious view is undoubtedly even older than its first expression in English, in the sixteenth century. Nevertheless, it has been repeated in the same form ever since, with only such slight variations as Mark Twain’s, “It’s too good for true, honey, it’s too good for true” (
Huckleberry Finn, 1884). Shaw played on the expression in the title of his 1932 play
Too True to Be Good. See also
too much of a good thing.
The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer Copyright © 2013 by Christine Ammer