so-called (sōkôld)
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Tweet adj. 1. Commonly called: "the artificial elevation that often occurs when a doctor or nurse reads a patient's blood pressure—the so-called white coat syndrome" (Andrew Weil). 2. Incorrectly or falsely termed: My so-called friends were gossiping about me again. Usage Note: Quotation marks should not be used to set off descriptions that follow expressions such as so-called and self-styled, which themselves relieve the writer of responsibility for the attribution: his so-called foolproof method (not "foolproof method"). |
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