Word.ws English Dictionary

give someone their cards

give someone their cards verb: to dismiss someone from employment; to fire or make redundant.

Verb

give someone their cards (third-person singular simple present gives someone their cards, present participle giving someone their cards, simple past gave someone their cards, past participle given someone their cards)

  1. (Ireland, UK, idiomatic, slang) To dismiss someone from employment; to fire or make redundant.
    • HEAD WAITER: It’s filthy! Gaston, find out who washed this up and give them their cards immediately!1969 October 19, J Graham Chapman, John Clees, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Michael Palin, 16:38 from the start, in Monty Python’s Flying Circus (How to Recognise Different Types of Tree...
    • Her noble husband, in urgent need of an heir, has dispatched her here with instructions to get herself into working order; should this not come to pass, Monica will be given her cards and told to vacate the premises so that Sir John can make alternative arrangements.1984, Anita Brookner, Hotel du Lac, Penguin, published 2016, page 80
    Synonyms:
    hand someone his cards

give someone their cards meaning in Malayalam

give someone their cards in Malayalam

dismiss, lay off, get rid of
ഇറക്കിവിടുക, പറഞ്ഞുവിടുക, പിരിച്ചുവിടുക, തള്ളുക, ഒഴിവാക്കുക, ഒഴിച്ചുവിടുക

Synonyms of give someone their cards

  • hand someone his cards

Forms of give someone their cards

third-person singular presentgives someone their cards
present participlegiving someone their cards
pastgave someone their cards
past participlegiven someone their cards

Questions about give someone their cards

What does give someone their cards mean?
Give someone their cards means to dismiss someone from employment; to fire or make redundant.
What is give someone their cards in Malayalam?
Give someone their cards in Malayalam is ഇറക്കിവിടുക, പറഞ്ഞുവിടുക, പിരിച്ചുവിടുക. See Give someone their cards meaning in Malayalam.
What part of speech is give someone their cards?
Give someone their cards is a verb.
What is the past tense of give someone their cards?
The past tense of give someone their cards is gave someone their cards.

Words near give someone their cards in the dictionary

  1. give someone the runaround
  2. give someone the rush act
  3. give someone the shits
  4. give someone the slip
  5. give someone the time
  6. give someone their cards
  7. give someone their flowers
  8. give someone their gruel
  9. give someone their hat
  10. give someone their head
  11. give someone their head on a plate

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: give someone their cards (page history and authors); give someone their cards (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “give someone their cards.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/give_someone_their_cards. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.