with apologies to

English

Phrase

with apologies to

1. A conventional way of attributing credit to somebody whose ideas or works one is adapting or parodying.
   • 2000, Howard Noel, I'm the Other Man in My Own Marriage!, page 122:

     With apologies to Jonathan Swift, May I make a “modest proposal?”

   • 2016, Anthony Hogan, ‎Rebecca Phillips, Hearing Impairment and Hearing Disability (page 5)

     Losing one's hearing suggests carelessness at best (with apologies to Oscar Wilde) and damnation at worst (in the biblical sense).