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up vote 6 down vote favorite

I want a common idiom or expression that says "to give (something) veracity"

I was thinking "give it some salt", but that seems like its not a common expression.

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"Tell it like it is." "Call a spade a spade." Those feel inadequate somehow. – Kelly C Hess Mar 23 '11 at 0:56
2  
"flesh it out" – Orbling Mar 23 '11 at 0:56
This question struck me as weird, because veracity means truthfulness or accuracy. People don't say things like "give it veracity" or "give it accuracy". Technically that would mean, get rid of all the errors and lies. But we all assumed that you meant "make it more convincing". Is that right? – Jason Orendorff Mar 23 '11 at 15:23

5 Answers

up vote 3 down vote

How about substantiate? Or some synonyms for substantiate from the Oxford American Writer's Thesaurus:

prove, show to be true, give substance to, support, uphold, bear out, justify, vindicate, validate, corroborate, verify, authenticate, confirm, endorse, give credence to.

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up vote 2 down vote

You could try lend credence to:

Her torn clothing and scratches on her arms and shoulders lent credence to her claim of having been attacked.

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up vote 2 down vote

How about back it up, as in We have the numbers to back that up or That claim sounds awfully flimsy; you need to back it up.

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up vote 1 down vote

Prove it. (must put thirty characters)

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up vote 0 down vote

Back it up, lend credence to, corroborate, support, grant verisimilitude.

That last one isn't exactly a common idiom. I just wanted to use the same word in two english.SE answers on the same day.

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