Word.ws English Dictionary

put one's cards on the table

put one's cards on the table verb: to reveal one's true intentions, beliefs, feelings, or other previously concealed facts about one's situation; to speak frankly.

Verb

put one's cards on the table (third-person singular simple present puts one's cards on the table, present participle putting one's cards on the table, simple past and past participle put one's cards on the table)

  1. (idiomatic) To reveal one's true intentions, beliefs, feelings, or other previously concealed facts about one's situation; to speak frankly.
    • "We needn't either of us," she continued, "be concerned for the other's reasons, though I'm perfectly ready, I assure you, to put my cards on the table."1899, Henry James, chapter 4, in The Awkward Age
    • I thought the time had come for me to put my cards on the table. I saw by this man's eye that he was the kind you can trust.1915, John Buchan, chapter 4, in The Thirty-Nine Steps

Synonyms of put one's cards on the table

Forms of put one's cards on the table

third-person singular presentputs one's cards on the table
present participleputting one's cards on the table
past participleput one's cards on the table
pastput one's cards on the table
alternative formlay one's cards on the table
alternative formplace one's cards on the table
alternative formput it all on the table
alternative formput it on the table

Origin of put one's cards on the table

An allusion to playing a card game where keeping one's cards hidden is advantageous.

Questions about put one's cards on the table

What does put one's cards on the table mean?
Put one's cards on the table means to reveal one's true intentions, beliefs, feelings, or other previously concealed facts about one's situation; to speak frankly.
What part of speech is put one's cards on the table?
Put one's cards on the table is a verb.
What is the past tense of put one's cards on the table?
The past tense of put one's cards on the table is put one's cards on the table.

Words near put one's cards on the table in the dictionary

  1. put one's affairs in order
  2. put one's ass on the line
  3. put one's back into
  4. put one's best foot foremost
  5. put one's best foot forward
  6. put one's cards on the table
  7. put one's ducks in a row
  8. put one's feet up
  9. put one's finger in a hole
  10. put one's finger in the dyke
  11. put one's finger in the fire

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: put one's cards on the table (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-put one's cards on the table.ogg.

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