let the cat out of the bag
Formslets the cat out of the bag, letting the cat out of the bag, let the cat out of the bag
- 1To reveal a secret, frequently without meaning to.
Like spilling ink across a page: once it's out, there's no wiping it clean.
She let the cat out of the bag about their engagement during dinner.
One careless remark and he let the cat out of the bag about the upcoming merger.
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Note
A market-stall swindle from the mid-1700s sits behind the phrase: a dishonest merchant passes off a cat in a sack as a pig, and once the cat gets out, the trick is exposed. It is the reverse of buying a pig in a poke. Only let changes, and its past matches its present: yesterday she let the cat out of the bag.
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Origin
Recorded from the mid-1700s, this is the inverse of the idiom "pig in a poke." The image is of a dishonest merchant trying to pass off a cat as a pig; when the cat comes or is taken out of the bag, the merchant's trick is exposed.