Straight to the Point Meaning
Definition: To speak in a direct or frank manner. To say immediately what one means or wants to say without any other chitchat.
Origin of Straight to the Point
When someone is trying to be polite, it is common to use less direct language. Someone might be indirect in an effort to be friendly. However, this practice of speaking about multiple things before approaching one’s real reason for the conversation does take up time.
For that reason, some people choose to be more straightforward and jump immediately to the main issue they wish to discuss.
One of the definitions of point is the most important or essential matter of a discussion. This is the meaning it holds in this idiom.
A short version of this expression is to the point. This has the same meaning and has existed since around the early-1800s. Adding straight gives it more emphasis. It stresses the fact that the person will not deviate the conversation from the main focus.
Examples
This example dialogue involves a husband and wife that are at home together before leaving for work in the morning.
Jennie: Bobby, wait a minute. Can we talk before we leave for work? I have some exciting news!
Bobby: I wish I could, but I have to leave in the next minute, or I’ll be late.
Jennie: That’s okay. I have to leave now, too. I promise I’ll be straight to the point.
Bobby: Okay.
Jennie: I’m pregnant.
Two friends are out at a bar and are arguing over how to get home.
Andrew: Let’s go home. I’ll drive us.
Aaron: No, maybe we should walk instead.
Andrew: You don’t have to pretend like you want to walk. I know you hate walking. Why don’t you just get straight to the point and tell me that you think I’m too drunk to drive.
Aaron: Um…
Andrew: It’s okay. We can take a cab if you want.
More Examples
This excerpt is about a man who coaches children on how to cook for a television show.
- Though he is always, as he put it, “honest and blunt and straight to the point,” on “MasterChef Junior” especially, he is also friendly and funny and, in a semi-tough-love way, caring and concerned. This is the Ramsay I like to regard as the genuine, or closer to genuine, item. –LA Times
The second excerpt is about a mother testifying in a court case.
- She went straight to the point: the credibility of her accusations. She offered testimony from Ricky Greenwald, the therapist she’d paid $15,000 to fly out from Massachusetts and interview her children, and his co-worker in the case, Dr. Lenore Walker, a nationally known psychologist. –OC Register
Summary
The phrase straight to the point is an expression that describes someone who speaks in a forthright manner.
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