know when to fold 'em
know when to fold 'em verb: to exercise sound judgment in a situation that is precarious and uncertain.
Verb
know when to fold 'em (third-person singular simple present knows when to fold 'em, present participle knowing when to fold 'em, simple past knew when to fold 'em, past participle known when to fold 'em)
Forms of know when to fold 'em
| third-person singular present | knows when to fold 'em |
|---|---|
| present participle | knowing when to fold 'em |
| past | knew when to fold 'em |
| past participle | known when to fold 'em |
Origin of know when to fold 'em
An allusion to a poker player knowing when to cut their losses rather than continue in an unfavorable situation.
Questions about know when to fold 'em
- What does know when to fold 'em mean?
- Know when to fold 'em means to exercise sound judgment in a situation that is precarious and uncertain.
- What part of speech is know when to fold 'em?
- Know when to fold 'em is a verb.
- What is the past tense of know when to fold 'em?
- The past tense of know when to fold 'em is knew when to fold 'em.
Words near know when to fold 'em in the dictionary
- know what side of one's bread is buttered
- know what side of the bread is buttered
- know what side one's bread is buttered on
- know what's o'clock
- know what's what
- know when to fold 'em
- know where one stands
- know where the bodies are buried
- know whether one is Arthur or Martha
- know which end is up
- know which side of one's bread is buttered
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: know when to fold 'em (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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Cite this entry: “know when to fold 'em.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/know_when_to_fold_%27em. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.