Word.ws English Dictionary

trust, but verify

trust, but verify phrase: one should have general faith in the benevolent intentions of others, but ultimately one can only rely on things that have been verified.

Phrase

trust, but verify

  1. One should have general faith in the benevolent intentions of others, but ultimately one can only rely on things that have been verified.
    • Before affixing his signature, Reagan also told the Soviet leader — and reassured congressional conservatives worried about Kremlin compliance — that he would follow the Russian adage to "trust, but verify."1987 December 9, Thom Shanker, “Battle turns gentle with proverbs galore”, in Chicago Tribune
    • If I had blindly fulfilled her first request, it would have inconvenienced many other users and wouldn't have solved the problem. Never forget this phrase - “trust, but verify.”2013, Kelly C Bourne, Application Administrators Handbook: Installing, Updating and Troubleshooting Software, Newnes, →ISBN, page 351

trust, but verify meaning in Arabic and Persian

trust, but verify in Arabic

Translations
ثِقْ وَلٰكِن تُحَقِّقْ ṯiq walākin tuḥaqqiq, ثِقِي وَلٰكِن تُحَقِّقِي ṯiqī walākin tuḥaqqiqī

trust, but verify in Persian

Translations
اعتماد کن، ولی راستیآزمایی کن

Origin of trust, but verify

Calque of Russian доверя́й, но проверя́й (doverjáj, no proverjáj). Often attributed to Vladimir Lenin, although no written evidence exists. Popularized in English by Ronald Reagan in the context of nuclear disarmament.

Questions about trust, but verify

What does trust, but verify mean?
Trust, but verify means one should have general faith in the benevolent intentions of others, but ultimately one can only rely on things that have been verified.
What is trust, but verify in Arabic?
Trust, but verify in Arabic is ثِقْ وَلٰكِن تُحَقِّقْ (ṯiq walākin tuḥaqqiq), ثِقِي وَلٰكِن تُحَقِّقِي (ṯiqī walākin tuḥaqqiqī). See Trust, but verify meaning in Arabic.
What part of speech is trust, but verify?
Trust, but verify is a phrase.

Words near trust, but verify in the dictionary

  1. trust territories
  2. trust territory
  3. Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands
  4. trust the process
  5. trust your friends, but cut the cards
  6. trust, but verify
  7. trust-falling
  8. trust-fund babies
  9. trust-fund baby
  10. trust-funder
  11. trust-funders

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: trust, but verify (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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