Quotation (speech) marks to indicate alleged or so-called

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Use quotation marks to indicate 'alleged' or 'so-called'.

Quotations for 'So-Called'

Quotation marks can be used to indicate 'supposedly', 'allegedly' or 'so-called'.

Examples:

Peter's "mates" left him on the path to die.

(so-called mates)

The sheep were noticeably stressed. It must've been a very big "cat".

(In this example, the quotation marks play two roles. They are showing a
quotation of somebody who claimed the culprit was a cat and infer so-called or
alleged too.)

"rescue" - correct (it's not a real rescue)
(magazine article)

Using his father's equipment, Alexander found over 50,000 bacteria on a "clean" chopping board.

(so-called clean)

JUST SAY IT ONCE

Quotation marks can be used to indicate 'alleged' or 'so-called'. There is no need to use these actual words when using quotation marks for this purpose.

Peter's so-called "mates" left him on the path to freeze.

(In this example, "so-called" and the quotation marks are doing the same job. This is known as tautology.)

Peter's so-called mates left him on the path to freeze.

Peter's "mates" left him on the path to freeze.

Recently, I booted out a bunch of supposed "professionals" and finished the job myself. I ended up having to redo half their work because it was so awful.

supposed "professionals"
"professionals"
supposed professionals
(magazine article)

Associated lessons:

Colon or comma before quotation (speech) marks?
Punctuation inside or outside quotation (speech) marks?
Quotation (speech) marks for ships, plays, books, etc.
Double or single quotation (speech) marks?