hand someone their cards
hand someone their cards verb: to dismiss someone from employment; to fire or make redundant.
Verb
hand someone their cards (third-person singular simple present hands someone their cards, present participle handing someone their cards, simple past and past participle handed someone their cards)
- To dismiss someone from employment; to fire or make redundant.
- To begin with, you were not sacked; it was you who gave notice.[…]Upon which he handed me my cards and my wages.1950, Miklos Laszlo, And the Snow Falls: A Play in Three Acts, page 29
- Now they say that times are hard and they’ve handed me my cards. They say there’s not the work to go around. And when the whistle blows, the gates will finally close. Tonight they’re going to shut this factory down. Then they’ll tear it d-o-w-n1985, “Ordinary Man”, in Ordinary Man, performed by Christy Moore, produced by Dónal Lunny
Forms of hand someone their cards
| third-person singular present | hands someone their cards |
|---|---|
| present participle | handing someone their cards |
| past participle | handed someone their cards |
| past | handed someone their cards |
| alternative form | give someone his cards |
Questions about hand someone their cards
- What does hand someone their cards mean?
- Hand someone their cards means to dismiss someone from employment; to fire or make redundant.
- What part of speech is hand someone their cards?
- Hand someone their cards is a verb.
- What is the past tense of hand someone their cards?
- The past tense of hand someone their cards is handed someone their cards.
Words near hand someone their cards in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: hand someone their cards (page history and authors). 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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