Idiom
spill the beans
Meaning
To reveal a secret; to disclose information.
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Examples
“Come on, spill the beans about your new job.”
“She promised not to spill the beans about the surprise engagement.”
“Under gentle questioning from the reporter, the nervous assistant finally spilled the beans about what really happened.”
Examples
simple
“Come on, spill the beans about your new job.”
contextual
“She promised not to spill the beans about the surprise engagement.”
complex
“Under gentle questioning from the reporter, the nervous assistant finally spilled the beans about what really happened.”
Origin
Early 20th-century American slang, where 'spill' meant to divulge; the popular story about ancient Greek voting with beans is folk etymology.
Key words
Related idioms
- Level
- B1 · Intermediate
- Updated