hold a mirror up to

English

Verb

hold a mirror up to (third-person singular simple present holds a mirror up to, present participle holding a mirror up to, simple past and past participle held a mirror up to)

1. Alternative form of hold a mirror to
   • c. 1599-1601, William Shakespeare, Hamlet, act 3, scene 2

     To hold as ’twere the mirror up to nature.

   • 2017, Rev. David K. Fly, My Life Under the Big Top: Reflections of a Comic, Clown and Priest:

     There are so many times when someone needs to hold a mirror up to the face of the Church...

   • 2018, Marcel Danesi, Empirical Research on Semiotics and Visual Rhetoric, page 55:

     Just as the Sphinx presented a paradigm of self-reference to hold a mirror up to Oedipus, the myth of Oedipus also holds a mirror up to us as witnesses.

   • 2017, Lurana Donnels O'Malley, The Dramatic Works of Catherine the Great: Theatre and Politics in Eighteenth-Century Russia:

     Catherine used comedy to hold a mirror up to her people, to expose and therefore correct the problems of her society.