| 单词 | let the cat out of the bag |
| 释义 | let the cat out of the bag (once / 40898 pages) v If you let the cat out of the bag, you reveal a secret, probably one that you promised to keep to yourself. If you promise not to reveal your friend's secret crush but then find yourself telling everyone in your math class about it, you've let the cat out of the bag. Like so many idioms, no one is positive where this saying originated, but one good guess is that it came from the old trick of substituting a cat for a piglet at a meat market. When the cat came out of the bag, the fraud would be revealed. WORD FAMILYlet the cat out of the bag: lets the cat out of the bag, letting the cat out of the bag USAGE EXAMPLESOne character lets the cat out of the bag by describing it as “the most American-white-lady story I’ve ever heard”. The Guardian(Mar 08, 2016) But is that because it's not true or because the company isn't ready to let the cat out of the bag? Los Angeles Times(Feb 03, 2016) ‘No wonder,’ Rab was saying, ‘Stranger tore that letter up. It certainly let the cat out of the bag. Where you off to, Johnny?’ Esther Hoskins Forbes, Johnny Tremain(1943) v divulge confidential information or secrets Syn|Ant|Hyper babble, babble out, blab, blab out, peach, sing, spill the beans, talk, tattle spill, talk reveal information keep one's mouth shut, keep quiet, shut one's mouth refrain from divulging sensitive information; keep quiet about confidential information break, bring out, disclose, discover, divulge, expose, give away, let on, let out, reveal, unwrap make known to the public information that was previously known only to a few people or that was meant to be kept a secret |
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