facon de parler

But you're so matter-of-fact, Archdeacon, when it suits your purpose, that one can't trust oneself to any façon de parler.

When all is said and done, is there not more hope, more solace, in an enigma than in a façon de parler?

He had no money, by-the-bye, it was merely his façon de parler.

And as for idleness, that, of course, is only a façon de parler.

Neither was this poverty a relative poverty, a mere “façon de parler,” as some would maintain.