1858, Azel Stevens Roe, True to the last; or, Alone on a wide, wide sea, page 50:
It seems a man had failed, or so they said, and all the things were to be sold […]
1971, Dhana
This is what Mbaite had done - or so they said . No, but not her, Nvanungi, for by the time second term finished she was four months, and it was ...
1989, SPIN, page 58:
But it was a bed, or so they said, and I was fading. I was one of the lucky ones; my room had hot water and a shower curtain and only a few cockroaches.
2011, Annie Caulfield, Katie Milk Solves Crimes and so on, Random House (→ISBN)
Or so they said. Almost as bad. The Burnt Oak Estate girls would have laughed their heads off at a Chinese burn. One of them had a knife when she was nine, ...
2016, Zyranna Zatelē, At Twilight They Return: A Novel in Ten Tales, Yale University Press (→ISBN), page 371:
... the first strange indication that something was not right with little Julia, who until then they had marked out—or so they said—for song and dance.
2021, John Mulgan, Man Alone, Victoria University Press (→ISBN)
"No, boy, no war for me. M'chest's bad so they said. It's a good thing it's over now."
