Word.ws English Dictionary

put someone to their trumps

put someone to their trumps verb: to put someone in a difficult situation.

Verb

put someone to their trumps (third-person singular simple present puts someone to their trumps, present participle putting someone to their trumps, simple past and past participle put someone to their trumps)

  1. (archaic, idiomatic) To put someone in a difficult situation.
    • But when Kings come ſo low, as to fawn upon Philoſophie, which before they neither vau'd nor underſtood, tis a ſigne that failes not, they are then put to their laſt Trump.1649, J[ohn] Milton, chapter VI, in ΕΙΚΟΝΟΚΛΆΣΤΗΣ [Eikonoklástēs] […], London: […] Matthew Simmons, […], →OCLC, page 57
    • I am still without any blanks from you, or notes, to renew yours at the different Banks in this City, I to day was put to my trumps completely as to the $4,000 at the Farmers Bank, the directors not being willing to take any other note but yours for its renewal, as it would relieve the security you...1821 July 5, Bernard Peyton, letter to Thomas Jefferson

Forms of put someone to their trumps

third-person singular presentputs someone to their trumps
present participleputting someone to their trumps
past participleput someone to their trumps
pastput someone to their trumps

Questions about put someone to their trumps

What does put someone to their trumps mean?
Put someone to their trumps means to put someone in a difficult situation.
What part of speech is put someone to their trumps?
Put someone to their trumps is a verb.
What is the past tense of put someone to their trumps?
The past tense of put someone to their trumps is put someone to their trumps.

Words near put someone to their trumps in the dictionary

  1. put someone on game
  2. put someone on ice
  3. put someone on to
  4. put someone out of their misery
  5. put someone through their paces
  6. put someone to their trumps
  7. put someone under the screw
  8. put someone wise
  9. put someone's back up
  10. put someone's light out
  11. put someone's lights out

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: put someone to their trumps (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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