Idiom
strong suit
Meaning
A field in which, or task at which, one is quite capable.
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Examples
“Cooking is not my strong suit.”
“Patience is a strong suit for a good teacher.”
“Is fixing cars your strong suit?”
“Public speaking is not his strong suit, so he felt nervous about the presentation.”
“If you need help with the budget, ask the manager because math is her strong suit.”
“The team lost the game because defense is not their strong suit this year.”
“You should handle the negotiations since staying calm under pressure has always been your strong suit during difficult business meetings.”
“While she excelled at complex data analysis, creative writing was simply not her strong suit.”
Examples
simple
“Cooking is not my strong suit.”
“Patience is a strong suit for a good teacher.”
“Is fixing cars your strong suit?”
contextual
“Public speaking is not his strong suit, so he felt nervous about the presentation.”
“If you need help with the budget, ask the manager because math is her strong suit.”
“The team lost the game because defense is not their strong suit this year.”
“You should handle the negotiations since staying calm under pressure has always been your strong suit during difficult business meetings.”
complex
“While she excelled at complex data analysis, creative writing was simply not her strong suit.”
Origin
Derived from card games in which a player may hold a particularly high number or value of cards in one of the four suits. The term appeared in the mid-19th century as a figurative extension of the advantage gained from such a hand. A player’s strong suit provided a reliable means of winning tricks, a circumstance that translated easily into a general description of personal ability or specialized knowledge.
Key words
Related idioms
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