From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishtake something at face valuetake something at face valueBELIEVEto accept a situation or accept what someone says, without thinking there may be a hidden meaning You shouldn’t always take his remarks at face value. → face value
Examples from the Corpus
take something at face value• The newspapers have taken this propaganda at face value, without questioning it.• But now, a hundred years on, certain factions persist in taking it at face value.• And he no longer took things at face value.• Because Kate, for all her faults real and imagined, was the only person ever to take him at face value. 