plain truth

plain truth (plural plain truths)

1. The unfiltered and honest facts about a subject or circumstances; reality.
   • 1836, The Monthly Review, page 384:

     It is to a nonconception of this plain truth, namely, that money is as much a marketable commodity as any of those things for which it is given in exchange, that we must ascribe the ignorance that prevails concerning the laws by which its value and its distribution are regulated, and of the consequences which follow when the natural operation of these laws is disturbed.

   • 1856, R[alph] W[aldo] Emerson, “Aristocracy”, in English Traits, Boston, Mass.: Phillips, Sampson, and Company, →OCLC, pages 187–188:

     [I]f they never hear plain truth from men, they see the best of every thing, in every kind, and they see things so grouped and amassed as to infer easily the sum and genius, instead of tedious particularities.

   • 1809 April, “Art. 37. Military Promotions; or the Duke and His Dulcinea. A Satirical Poem. 4to. 2s. 6d. Richardson. [book review]”, in The Monthly Review; or, Literary Journal, Enlarged, volume LVIII, London: Sold by T[homas] Becket, […], →OCLC, page 439:

     We suppose that this author has done his best to be satirical; and he may have thought that his subject would have inspired him with all that was smart and piquant: but the plain truth is that the promised champagne turns out to be vapid small beer.

   • 1922 October 21, Bertram Atkey, “Winnie and the Panther Man”, in The Saturday Evening Post, volume 195, number 17, Philadelphia, Pa.: The Curtis Publishing Company, section VI, page 136:

     He had seen the advertisement of The Ray, the promised new journal of plain truth, he continued suavely, and if it chanced that she, Miss O’Wynn, was the talented investigatress who was writing the promised article on the alleged Morriston Colony mystery, he begged that she would grant him the favor, the very great favor, of an interview at the earliest possible moment.

• fact of the matter
• naked truth

• hard truth