bend the truth

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bend the truth (third-person singular simple present bends the truth, present participle bending the truth, simple past and past participle bent the truth)

1. (idiomatic) To change or leave out certain facts of a story or situation, generally in order to elicit a specific response in the audience.

   In relating the story to Julie, he decided to bend the truth just enough to make her think he had really been in danger.

   • 1991 May 24, Larry Kahhan, “Gun-control groups shouldn't hail Brady Bill too early”, in Atlanta Journal Constitution, Letters to the Editor:

     In his warped attempt to bend the truth completely out of shape, ....

   • 1995 February 23, “Letters to the Post”, in Denver Post, Denver & the West, page B-06:

     In a Feb. 5 column, Dottie Lamm seemed quite happy to bend the truth in all directions

   • 2001, Tom Clancy, The Bear and the Dragon:

     KGB had always been on the lookout for hard facts, but then reported those facts to people besotted with a dream, who then bent the truth in the service of that dream. When the truth had finally broken through, the dream had suddenly evaporated like a cloud of steam in a high wind, and reality had poured in like the flood following the breakup of an icebound river in springtime.

• lie
• stretch the truth