Word.ws English Dictionary

trust everybody, but cut the cards

trust everybody, but cut the cards proverb: one should have general faith in the good intentions of others, but one should never neglect to take appropriate precautions against being deceived or cheated.

Proverb

trust everybody, but cut the cards

  1. One should have general faith in the good intentions of others, but one should never neglect to take appropriate precautions against being deceived or cheated.
    • A deep-dyed fatalist, sentimental yet cynical—"Trust everybody," he is fond of saying, "but cut the cards"—his running history of his Chicago tribe is a struggle of clan and family survival, with little help from outsiders.1997, Donald L. Miller, City of the Century, →ISBN, page 526
    • I was often reminded of Mr. Dooley's famous admonition to “Trust everybody, but cut the cards.” We did “cut the cards” by installing a fake camera high on one wall and pointed at the cash register.2013, William C. Prentiss, One Man In His Time: A Memoir, →ISBN, page 413

Forms of trust everybody, but cut the cards

alternative formtrust everybody, but always cut the cards
alternative formtrust everybody, but cut the deck
alternative formtrust every man, but cut the cards
alternative formtrust your friends, but cut the cards

Origin of trust everybody, but cut the cards

Reportedly coined by Finley Peter Dunne (1867-1936) and expressed in dialect by his character "Mr. Dooley" in Mr. Dooley's Philosophy (1900), p. 260: "Thrust ivrybody—but cut th' ca-ards."

Questions about trust everybody, but cut the cards

What does trust everybody, but cut the cards mean?
Trust everybody, but cut the cards means one should have general faith in the good intentions of others, but one should never neglect to take appropriate precautions against being deceived or cheated.
What part of speech is trust everybody, but cut the cards?
Trust everybody, but cut the cards is a proverb.

Words near trust everybody, but cut the cards in the dictionary

  1. trust deed
  2. trust deeds
  3. trust every man, but cut the cards
  4. trust everybody, but always cut the cards
  5. trust everybody, but always cut the deck
  6. trust everybody, but cut the cards
  7. trust everybody, but cut the deck
  8. trust fall
  9. trust falls
  10. trust fund
  11. trust fund babies

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: trust everybody, but cut the cards (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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