spill the beans

bean

B0133200 (bēn)n.1. a. Any of various twining herbs of the genus Phaseolus in the pea family, native to the Americas, having leaves with three leaflets and variously colored flowers, and widely cultivated for their edible pods and seeds.b. A seed or pod of any of these plants.2. Any of several related plants or their seeds or pods, such as the adzuki bean, broad bean, or soybean.3. Any of various other plants or their seeds or fruits, especially those suggestive of beans such as the coffee bean or vanilla bean.4. Slang A person's head.5. beans Slang A small amount: I don't know beans about investing.6. Chiefly British A fellow; a chap.tr.v. beaned, bean·ing, beans Slang To hit (another) on the head with a thrown object, especially a pitched baseball.Idioms: full of beans1. Energetic; frisky: The children were too full of beans to sit still.2. Badly mistaken: Don't believe him; he's full of beans. spill the beans To disclose a secret.

[Middle English ben, broad bean, from Old English bēan; see bha-bhā- in Indo-European roots.]

spill the beans

To let out a secret; from a method of voting in secret societies in ancient Greece using white or black beans. To upset the container and let everyone see how many black beans (negative votes) it contained would be potentially embarrassing.

Thesaurus

Verb

spill the beans - divulge confidential information or secrets; "Be careful--his secretary talks"babble out, blab, blab out, let the cat out of the bag, peach, tattle, babble, sing, talkdisclose, let on, divulge, expose, give away, let out, reveal, unwrap, discover, bring out, break - make known to the public information that was previously known only to a few people or that was meant to be kept a secret; "The auction house would not disclose the price at which the van Gogh had sold"; "The actress won't reveal how old she is"; "bring out the truth"; "he broke the news to her"; "unwrap the evidence in the murder case"talk, spill - reveal information; "If you don't oblige me, I'll talk!"; "The former employee spilled all the details"

Translations

不慎泄漏

spill

(spil) verb – past tense, past participle spilt (-t) , spilled – to (cause something to) fall or run out (usually accidentally). He spilt milk on the floor; Vegetables spilled out of the burst bag. 洒，跌落 spill the beans to give away a secret. By Monday it was evident that someone had spilled the beans to the newspapers.不慎泄漏

spill the beans

To reveal something that was meant to be a secret. We had everything organized for Bruce's surprise party, but Kate accidentally spilled the beans to him at work. All right, spill the beans! What's going on?See also: bean, spill

spill the beans

and spill the worksFig. to give away a secret or a surprise. There is a surprise party for Heidi on Wednesday. Please don't spill the beans. Paul spilled the works about Heidi's party.See also: bean, spill

spill the beans

Disclose a secret or reveal something prematurely, as in You can count on little Carol to spill the beans about the surprise. In this colloquial expression, first recorded in 1919, spill means "divulge," a usage dating from the 1500s. See also: bean, spill

spill the beans

INFORMALCOMMON If you spill the beans, you reveal the truth about something secret or private. He was scared to death I was going to spill the beans to the cops. Come on, spill the beans! Whose fault was it? Note: This expression has a number of possible explanations. One is derived from an ancient practice of voting by placing coloured beans in one of a number of jars or pots, then tipping the beans out and counting them. Another is an informal description of vomiting. See also: bean, spill

spill the beans

reveal secret information, especially unintentionally or indiscreetly. informalSee also: bean, spill

spill the ˈbeans

(informal) tell somebody something that should be kept secret or private: We were trying to keep it a secret from Pete, but Marcia spilled the beans. ♢ Come on, spill the beans! What did your father say? OPPOSITE: keep something under your hatSee also: bean, spill

spill the beans

and spill the works tv. to give away a secret or a surprise. There is a surprise party for Heidi on Wednesday. Please don’t spill the beans. Sorry, I didn’t mean to spill the works. See also: bean, spill

spill the beans

To disclose a secret.See also: bean, spill

spill the beans, to

To give away a secret. This slangy Americanism combines two earlier meanings: of spill, meaning to talk, and of beans, meaning information. Although these date from the sixteenth and thirteenth centuries respectively, the cliché has been around only since the 1920s or so. It is particularly common in detective stories and novels, in which the opportunity for revealing important secrets is a common occurrence.See also: spill

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Synonyms for spill the beans

verb divulge confidential information or secrets

Synonyms

Related Words