Idiom
let the cat out of the bag
Meaning
To disclose a secret; to let a secret be known, often inadvertently.
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Examples
“He let the cat out of the bag about the party.”
“We wanted it to be a surprise, but someone let the cat out of the bag.”
“The firm planned to announce the merger next month, but a careless email let the cat out of the bag and shares tumbled.”
Examples
simple
“He let the cat out of the bag about the party.”
contextual
“We wanted it to be a surprise, but someone let the cat out of the bag.”
complex
“The firm planned to announce the merger next month, but a careless email let the cat out of the bag and shares tumbled.”
Origin
First recorded in The London Magazine (1760); traditionally linked to market fraud — selling a cat in a sack as a 'pig in a poke' — though that story is unverified.
Key words
Related idioms
- Level
- B1 · Intermediate
- Updated