never trust me

English

Phrase

never trust me

1. (UK, slang, obsolete) Used in oaths, suggesting that one should never be trusted again if what one says now is not true.
   • c. 1590–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Taming of the Shrew”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene ii]:

     PETRUCHIO: Now, for my life, Hortensio fears his widow.
     WIDOW: Then never trust me, if I be afeard.

   • 1888, Letters from Dorothy Osborne to Sir William Temple, 1652-1654:

     Never trust me if I had not a suspicion from the first that 'twas that ill-looked fellow B— who made that story Mr. D— told you.

References

• John Camden Hotten (1873) The Slang Dictionary