not exactly

He is not exactly good-looking, but, on the contrary, extremely plain. He is not exactly good-tempered. He is not exactly steady or sober, or industrious, or even ambitious. He is, in fact, "ugly, irreligious, dissipated, ill-tempered."

1872 May 11, Rhoda Broughton, “"Good-Bye Sweetheart!" a Tale”, in The Athenæum, number 2324, page 586

"Those two," he said. "They don't seem exactly your sort." "you mean," said she, "they are not exactly yours."

1911 August, May Sinclair, “Appearances”, in Good Housekeeping Magazine, volume 53, number 2, page 163

Just bartending for a while and playing to sparse bar crowds with just his acoustic and a PA, although not exactly the best way to pad the retirement fund that he had blown during his fifteen seconds of fame or make your mark on the world, would have to do.

2011, Scott Honey, Not Exactly the Finest Kind, page 19

For a start, as the title of his first collection of short tales suggests, they are not exactly ghost stories, although most involve characters who in their own particular way are haunted.

2007, Andrew Caldecott, Not Exactly Ghosts, page i

Once again, the boundary is not exactly correct. Some speakers would be better modelled by a somewhat lower boundary and others by a higher one.

2012, Kees van Deemter, Not Exactly: In Praise of Vagueness, page 148