1
general::
Phrase(s): as it were
as one might say; as could be said. (Sometimes used to qualify an assertion that may not sound reasonable.) • He carefully constructed, as it were, a huge submarine sandwich. • The Franklins live in a small and, as it were, exquisite house.
McGrawhill's American Idioms And Phrasal Verbs
2
general::
Seemingly, in a way, as in He was living in a dream world, as it were. A shortening of "as if it were so," this idiom has been in use since Chaucer's time (he had it in his Nun's Priest's Tale, c. 1386). Also see so TO SPEAK.
American Heritage Idioms