Learn English – Expression for false assertions

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I'm looking for an expression that would describe a statement that's too obvious, making it work against its intention.

An example would be to tell someone you didn't steal something, before anyone even asked.

Best Answer

My first thought is protest too much which comes from Shakespeare's Hamlet. The line in Hamlet (Act 3 Scene 2) is:

The lady doth protest too much, methinks

The quote comes as a response to a question about a character in a play-within-the-play and, as one author wrote,

...the only criticism she has to offer is that the Player Queen's protestations of love and devotion sound too fulsome to be convincing even to the fatuous Player King

So, by protesting (denying or espousing something) too much, one appears to believe the opposite.

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