Fig: referred to someone who takes pain of systematically refuting an opponent's particular theory or proposal, but simply to ensure that all sides of a case have been considered. Someone posing a hypothetical argument against a logical proposition

To prepare his client for the trial, the lawyer played the devil's advocate and asked him some biting and possibly compromising questions

Per preparare il suo cliente al processo, il difensore ha fatto la parte dell'avvocato del diavolo facendogli domande dirette e possibilmente compromettenti

Vanessa is cross with her husband because whenever they discuss a topic, even if he is in agreement with her, he likes to play the devil's advocate by picking apart her arguments

Vanessa ce l'ha con suo marito perché gli piace fare sempre l'avvocato del diavolo e ogni volta che discutono su qualcosa, anche se sono fondamentalmente d'accordo, lui controbatte tutte le sue posizioni

In Roman Catholic Church proceedings of canonization (naming someone a saint), a prominent participant, called “Advocatus Diaboli” (Latin for the Devil's Advocate), was charged with bringing up all the arguments against sainthood, in order to clear any doubts about the merits of the potential saint