Word.ws English Dictionary

show one's stripes

show one's stripes is the alternative form of show one's true stripes.

Meaning of show one's true stripes

Verb

show one's true stripes (third-person singular simple present shows one's true stripes, present participle showing one's true stripes, simple past showed one's true stripes, past participle shown one's true stripes or (US also) showed one's true stripes)

  1. (idiomatic) To reveal one's real beliefs, sentiments, or character, especially through one's behavior.
    • Fidel Castro showed his true stripes again—as if they weren't indelible enough already—by letting his MiGs shoot down two of three unarmed Cuban-exile planes off Havana's coast on Saturday.1996 February 26, “Editorial" Against Change in Cuba”, in Miami Herald, retrieved 21 Mar 2013, page 14A

Forms of show one's stripes

third-person singular presentshows one's stripes
present participleshowing one's stripes
pastshowed one's stripes
past participleshown one's stripes
past participle US alsoshowed one's stripes

Questions about show one's stripes

What is show one's stripes the alternative form of?
Show one's stripes is the alternative form of show one's true stripes.

Words near show one's stripes in the dictionary

  1. show one's butt
  2. show one's cards
  3. show one's claws
  4. show one's face
  5. show one's hand
  6. show one's stripes
  7. show one's stuff
  8. show one's teeth
  9. show one's true colors
  10. show one's true colours
  11. show one's true stripes

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: show one's stripes (page history and authors); show one's true stripes (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: “show one's stripes.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/show_one%27s_stripes. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.