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true

Pronunciation: /truː/

Translate true | into French | into German | into Italian | into Spanish
Definition of true

adjective (truer, truest)

  • 1in accordance with fact or reality:a true story of course it’s true that is not true of the people I am talking about
  • [attributive] rightly or strictly so called; genuine:people are still willing to pay for true craftsmanship we believe in true love
  • [attributive] real or actual:he has guessed my true intentions
  • said when conceding a point:true, the house faced north, but you got used to that
  • 2accurate or exact:it was a true depiction
  • (of a note) exactly in tune.
  • (of a compass bearing) measured relative to true north:steer 085 degrees true
  • correctly positioned, balanced, or aligned; upright or level.
  • 3loyal or faithful:he was a true friend
  • (true to) accurately conforming to (a standard or expectation); faithful to:this entirely new production remains true to the essence of Lorca’s play
  • 4chiefly archaic honest:we appeal to all good men and true to rally to us

adverb

  • 1chiefly literary truly:Hobson spoke truer than he knew
  • 2accurately or without variation.

verb (trues, truing or trueing, trued)

[with object]
  • bring (an object, wheel, or other construction) into the exact shape or position required: the bench sander is ideal for truing up faces of timber

Phrases

come true

actually happen or become the case:dreams can come true

out of true (or the true)

not in the correct or exact shape or alignment:take care not to pull the frame out of true

many a true word is spoken in jest

proverb a humorous remark not intended to be taken seriously may turn out to be accurate after all.

true as Bob (or God)

South African informal absolutely true:true as Bob, I nearly went right through the windscreen
[Bob represents a euphemistic substitution of God, the idiom translating obsolete Afrikaans so waar as God]

true to form (or type)

being or behaving as expected:true to type, they took it well

true to life

accurately representing real events or objects: this story is true to life

Derivatives

trueness

noun

Origin:

Old English trēowe, trȳwe 'steadfast, loyal'; related to Dutch getrouw, German treu, also to truce

true in other Oxford dictionaries

Definition of true in the US English dictionary

Nearby words

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