on the safe side

English

Prepositional phrase

on the safe side

1. Taking precautions.

   Just to be on the safe side, why don't you Google him?

   • c. 1921 (date written), Karel Čapek, translated by Paul Selver, R.U.R. (Rossum’s Universal Robots): A Fantastic Melodrama […], Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, published 1923, →OCLC, Act 2:

     Oh, no, my dear, I ordered that six months ago, just to be on the safe side. But upon my soul, I was sure then that we'd be on board to-day.

Translations

on the safe side

• Danish: på den sikre side, for en sikkerheds skyld
• Dutch: veiligheidshalve (nl), voor de zekerheid
• Finnish: varmuuden vuoksi (fi)
• French: par acquit de conscience (fr), par précaution, au cas où (fr), par principe
• German: vorsichtshalber (de), sicherheitshalber (de), auf der sicheren Seite
• Greek: για κάθε ενδεχόμενο (gia káthe endechómeno)
• Hungarian: a biztonság kedvéért, biztos, ami biztos
• Italian: per ogni evenienza
• Japanese: 念のために (nen no tame ni)
• Polish: występując bezpiecznie
• Spanish: curarse en salud

See also

• err on the side of caution
• for good measure
• play it safe