so to speak

alternative so to say

1. In a manner of speaking.

   Then Tom girded up his loins, so to speak, and went to work to “get his verses.”

   1876, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], chapter IV, in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Hartford, Conn.: The American Publishing Company, →OCLC, page 42

   5 more examples

   This could have occurred nowhere but in England, where men and sea interpenetrate, so to speak—the sea entering into the life of most men, and the men knowing something or everything about the sea, in the way of amusement, of travel, or of bread-winning.

   1898 September, Joseph Conrad, “Youth: a Narrative”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXIV, number DCCCCXCV, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publication Co., page 309

   He took the great, round world in his hand, so to speak, familiarly, contemptuously, and it seemed no larger than the seed of a Maraschino cherry in a table d’hôte grape fruit.

   1906 April, O. Henry [pseudonym; William Sydney Porter], “A Cosmopolite in a Café”, in The Four Million, New York, N.Y.: McClure, Phillips & Co, →OCLC, page 27

   I don't believe Lecter's even seen a woman in eight years. And oh, are you ever his taste. So to speak.

   1991, Ted Tally, The Silence of the Lambs (motion picture), spoken by Dr. Frederick Chilton (Anthony Heald)

   For Firefighter Joseph Ceravolo, President Obama turned up the heat, so to speak, even before he sat down to an early lunch on Thursday.

   2011 May 5, James Barron, Colin Moynihan, “Obama Visits Firehouse in Midtown Manhattan”, in New York Times, retrieved 24 Nov 2011

   Every guest is appalled and fantastically humourless about the experience, even at this distance. You cannot help but wonder at cultural divides and how differently the British might have approached – or at least recalled – such events, at least in the early days. For us, surely, it would be a story for the ages. You could dine out on it for ever, so to speak.

   2026 June 24, Lucy Mangan, “Poop Cruise review – a fascinating look at a toilet disaster that still haunts passengers 12 years later”, in The Guardian

   Synonyms: as it were, in a manner of speaking, if you will