Word.ws English Dictionary

hold all the cards

hold all the cards is the alternative form of hold the cards.

Meaning of hold the cards

Verb

hold the cards (third-person singular simple present holds the cards, present participle holding the cards, simple past and past participle held the cards)

  1. (idiomatic) To be in a strong position, possessing significant advantages over someone else; to be in control of a situation involving multiple parties.
    • "[B]ut if you make conditions I have no choice but to accept them, seeing that you hold the cards."1907, R. Austin Freeman, chapter 14, in The Red Thumb Mark

Forms of hold all the cards

third-person singular presentholds all the cards
present participleholding all the cards
past participleheld all the cards
pastheld all the cards

Questions about hold all the cards

What is hold all the cards the alternative form of?
Hold all the cards is the alternative form of hold the cards.

Words near hold all the cards in the dictionary

  1. hold a torch for
  2. hold against
  3. hold all of the aces
  4. hold all of the cards
  5. hold all the aces
  6. hold all the cards
  7. hold back
  8. hold back on
  9. hold baggage
  10. hold by
  11. hold by the button

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: hold all the cards (page history and authors); hold the 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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