not to put too fine a point on itとは

成句

not to put too fine a point on it

1. (idiomatic) used to apologise for a possibly impolite statement one is making.
   • 1853, Charles Dickens, Bleak House:

     My little woman is at present in — not to put too fine a point on it — in a pious state, or in what she considers such, and attends the Evening Exertions (which is the name they go by) of a reverend party of the name of Chadband

   • 1922 February, James Joyce, Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare & Co.; Sylvia Beach, OCLC 560090630; republished London: Published for the Egoist Press, London by John Rodker, Paris, October 1922, OCLC 2297483:
     Episode 16

     En route to his taciturn and, not to put too fine a point on it, not yet perfectly sober companion Mr Bloom...

   • 2001, Amy Jenkins, Honeymoon, page 39:

     Well, you will end up — not to put too fine a point on it (you lower your voice) — having sex.