Meaning of butler lie | Babel Free

Definitions

A polite lie told in a text, on the phone, or through a similar electronic medium that provides an excuse for why one is unavailable.

Examples

“By indicating that a contact has read a message, this feature may affect response time expectations and also makes it more difficult to tell a butler lie excusing late reply to a message (eg, “sorry; just saw your message”).”

“Thus, if we want to end a mediated communication we may tell a butler lie like 'someone has just knocked at the door', or if we do not want to meet someone at a suggested time we may say we cannot because we 'have an assignment to finish'.”

“He's lying, but it's a polite lie. A butler lie.”

CEFR level