take (someone or something) at face value
(redirected from taken something at face value)take (someone or something) at face value
To accept or trust someone or something based only on an initial or superficial presentation, without taking further proof, verification, or investigation into account. I've learned never to take corporate PR statements at face value. It's hard to take Jeff at face value when he's been caught lying in the past.
take someone or something at face value
to accept someone or something just as it appears; to believe that the way things appear is the way they really are. He means what he says. You have to take him at face value. I take everything he says at face value.
take something at face value
to accept something exactly the way it appears to be. I don't know whether I can take her story at face value, but I will assume that she is not lying. The committee took the report at face value and approved the suggested changes.
at face value, take
Accept from its outward appearance, as in You can't always take a manufacturer's advertisements at face value; they're bound to exaggerate . Literally this idiom has referred to the monetary value printed on a bank note, stock certificate, bond, or other financial instrument since the 1870s. The figurative usage is from the late 1800s.