Word.ws English Dictionary

shown one's true stripes

shown one's true stripes is the past participle 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

Questions about shown one's true stripes

What is shown one's true stripes the past participle of?
Shown one's true stripes is the past participle of show one's true stripes.

Words near shown one's true stripes in the dictionary

  1. shown one's claws
  2. shown one's hand
  3. shown one's stuff
  4. shown one's teeth
  5. shown one's true colors
  6. shown one's true stripes
  7. shown one's work
  8. shown oneself
  9. shown out
  10. shown round
  11. shown skin

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: shown one's true 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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