Meaning
Hidden facts cannot stay hidden forever; however carefully a lie or secret is guarded, the truth will eventually come to light. Often said with a fatalistic or reassuring tone, implying that deception only delays the inevitable reckoning. Used as a fixed proverb without an article (truth will out, not usually the truth will out in proverbial use). Neutral register; can sound solemn or wry depending on context. Regional use: General English (Shakespearean allusion).
Origin
In The Merchant of Venice (c. 1596), Act 2 Scene 2, the clown Launcelot Gobbo, playing a trick on his sand-blind father, delivers: 'truth will come to light; murder cannot be hid long; a man's son may, but at the length truth will out.' Reference works routinely credit Shakespeare - the Phrase Finder site even lists it among phrases coined by him - yet the record does not support coinage. Wiktionary's etymology notes that the saying appears as early as John Lydgate's late Middle English writings on the life of St Alban (fifteenth century), and a printed use from 1559, 'for truth wil out', is cited in a reader contribution on the Phrase Finder page itself, predating the play by decades. Shakespeare was evidently voicing a proverb already in circulation; the same speech also echoes the older kindred idea that murder cannot stay hidden long.
Research Sources
References used to check this entry’s meaning, history, or documented forms.
Variants
- the truth will out
- truth will come out
Usage Examples
- The auditors stayed silent for years, but truth will out, and the ledgers finally reached the board.
- He banked on the faked trial data staying buried; truth will out, and a whistleblower wrote to the dean.
- Truth will out, the old reporter said, and this story has waited thirty years to be told.