turning up trumps
turning up trumps is the present participle and gerund of turn up trumps.
Meaning of turn up trumps
Verb
turn up trumps (third-person singular simple present turns up trumps, present participle turning up trumps, simple past and past participle turned up trumps)
- To end up being successful when doing so was uncertain or unlikely.
- So nearly all her investment turned up trumps, and Edward was really in fit case to reopen Branshaw Manor and once more to assume his position in the county.1915, Ford Madox Hueffer [i.e., Ford Madox Ford], chapter V, in The Good Soldier […], Harmondsworth, Middlesex [London]: Penguin Books, published 1972 (1982 printing), →ISBN, part I, page 62
- Antonyms:
- come to nothing, come to nought, die in the ass, go to shit
Questions about turning up trumps
- What is turning up trumps the present participle and gerund of?
- Turning up trumps is the present participle and gerund of turn up trumps.
Words near turning up trumps in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: turning up trumps (page history and authors); turn up 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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Cite this entry: “turning up trumps.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/turning_up_trumps. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.