level with

level with (third-person singular simple present levels with, present participle leveling with or levelling with, simple past and past participle leveled with or levelled with)

1. (idiomatic, informal) To be frank or particularly honest and clear with someone.
   • 1972, U.S. Government Printing Office, quoting Gerald F. Dibble, Hearings Before the Subcommittee on Agricultural Credit and Rural Electrification of the Committee on Agriculture and Forestry‎, First Session on The Problems Facing Rural Electric Cooperatives in Providing Adequate Power at Reasonable Rates for Rural America, page 363:

     Why am I here? I'll level with you. For the last few years the Congress has been appropriating about 325 million for the REA program and it hasn't been enough.

   • 2020, Penelope Scott (lyrics and music), “Rät”, in Public Void, track 7:

     Let me level with you, man, as someone guilty of the game / I took the help, I took the cash, I would've taken your last name

   • 2021 January, Joe Biden, The Inauguration of the 46th President of the United States‎ (web video), YouTube, Washington D.C.: The White House, 30:06 from the start:

     Before God and all of you, I give you my word: I will always level with you. I will defend the Constitution. I’ll defend our democracy.