modest proposals
Unassuming offered ideas
A modest proposal is an idea presented as reasonable but actually radical, provocative, or satirical.
The phrase alludes to Jonathan Swift's 1729 essay sarcastically suggesting that impoverished Irish families sell their children as food.
Used ironically for suggestions that are anything but modest: His "modest proposal" was to abolish taxes entirely.
- offerProposal to provide
- suggestionIdea proposed for consideration
- Jonathan SwiftDublin's savage satirist
- satireMockery exposing vice
- understatedDeliberately minimized in expression
humble · exploitation · sardonicism · inequality · parody · poverty · cannibalism · oppression · ruling class · Irish · injustice · lampoon · dark humor · tongue in cheek · political pamphlets · social commentary · absurdity · idea