See spill the beans on Wiktionary
{
"etymology_text": "First attested in 20th century American English. One possible origin for the phrase is from an Ancient Greek practice of using different-coloured beans for voting, where spilling the jar containing them would unwantedly reveal the results, though this might be folk etymology.",
"forms": [
{
"form": "spills the beans",
"tags": [
"present",
"singular",
"third-person"
]
},
{
"form": "spilling the beans",
"tags": [
"participle",
"present"
]
},
{
"form": "spilled the beans",
"tags": [
"participle",
"past"
]
},
{
"form": "spilled the beans",
"tags": [
"past"
]
},
{
"form": "spilt the beans",
"tags": [
"participle",
"past"
]
},
{
"form": "spilt the beans",
"tags": [
"past"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "*",
"past2": "spilt the beans"
},
"expansion": "spill the beans (third-person singular simple present spills the beans, present participle spilling the beans, simple past and past participle spilled the beans or spilt the beans)",
"name": "en-verb"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "verb",
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
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"name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
"parents": [
"Entries with incorrect language header",
"Entry maintenance"
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"parents": [],
"source": "w"
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"source": "w"
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"kind": "other",
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"source": "w"
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],
"examples": [
{
"text": "They had planned it as a surprise party, but somebody spilled the beans.",
"type": "example"
},
{
"ref": "2008, Patricia Cornwell, Point Of Origin:",
"text": "I guarantee you, someone's going to spill the beans and next thing this shit's all over the news.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2017, Wade Fowler, The Honey Trap:",
"text": "He accepted a contract to kill you and Frank DePalma. You because she couldn't be sure what Wennington had told you, and Frank because he got cold feet and was about to spill the beans.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "April 5 2022, Tina Brown, “How Princess Diana’s Dance With the Media Impacted William and Harry”, in Vanity Fair:",
"text": "More unsettling was the origin story of the infamous tell-all book Princess in Love. Diana claimed to be outraged in 1994 when Daily Express journalist Anna Pasternak spilled the beans of her affair with former army officer James Hewitt[…]",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2022, Spencer Coleman, Facade:",
"text": "Shall we meet up for a meal and I think I can be persuaded to spill the beans if I drink enough wine.",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"To reveal a secret; to disclose information."
],
"id": "en-spill_the_beans-en-verb-O9rtbagv",
"links": [
[
"reveal",
"reveal"
],
[
"secret",
"secret"
],
[
"disclose",
"disclose"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(intransitive, idiomatic) To reveal a secret; to disclose information."
],
"synonyms": [
{
"word": "let the cat out of the bag"
},
{
"word": "spill one's guts"
},
{
"word": "spill the tea"
}
],
"tags": [
"idiomatic",
"intransitive"
],
"translations": [
{
"code": "hy",
"lang": "Armenian",
"roman": "tʻapʻel tʻeyə",
"sense": "to reveal a secret; to disclose information — see also let the cat out of the bag",
"word": "թափել թեյը"
},
{
"code": "yue",
"lang": "Chinese Cantonese",
"roman": "baau³ liu² ceot¹ lai⁴",
"sense": "to reveal a secret; to disclose information — see also let the cat out of the bag",
"word": "爆料出嚟"
},
{
"code": "cmn",
"lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
"sense": "to reveal a secret; to disclose information — see also let the cat out of the bag",
"word": "露餡"
},
{
"code": "cmn",
"lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
"roman": "lòuxiàn",
"sense": "to reveal a secret; to disclose information — see also let the cat out of the bag",
"word": "露馅"
},
{
"code": "da",
"lang": "Danish",
"sense": "to reveal a secret; to disclose information — see also let the cat out of the bag",
"word": "spilde teen"
},
{
"code": "nl",
"lang": "Dutch",
"sense": "to reveal a secret; to disclose information — see also let the cat out of the bag",
"word": "een boekje opendoen"
},
{
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"sense": "to reveal a secret; to disclose information — see also let the cat out of the bag",
"word": "kieliä"
},
{
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"sense": "to reveal a secret; to disclose information — see also let the cat out of the bag",
"word": "paljastaa"
},
{
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"sense": "to reveal a secret; to disclose information — see also let the cat out of the bag",
"word": "laverrella"
},
{
"code": "fr",
"lang": "French",
"sense": "to reveal a secret; to disclose information — see also let the cat out of the bag",
"word": "cracher le morceau"
},
{
"code": "fr",
"lang": "French",
"sense": "to reveal a secret; to disclose information — see also let the cat out of the bag",
"word": "lâcher le morceau"
},
{
"code": "fr",
"lang": "French",
"sense": "to reveal a secret; to disclose information — see also let the cat out of the bag",
"word": "vendre la mèche"
},
{
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "to reveal a secret; to disclose information — see also let the cat out of the bag",
"word": "ausplaudern"
},
{
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "to reveal a secret; to disclose information — see also let the cat out of the bag",
"word": "auspacken"
},
{
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "to reveal a secret; to disclose information — see also let the cat out of the bag",
"word": "alles verraten"
},
{
"code": "el",
"lang": "Greek",
"roman": "chýno to tsái",
"sense": "to reveal a secret; to disclose information — see also let the cat out of the bag",
"word": "χύνω το τσάι"
},
{
"code": "he",
"lang": "Hebrew",
"roman": "hilshín",
"sense": "to reveal a secret; to disclose information — see also let the cat out of the bag",
"word": "הִלְשִׁין"
},
{
"code": "hu",
"lang": "Hungarian",
"sense": "to reveal a secret; to disclose information — see also let the cat out of the bag",
"word": "elárul"
},
{
"code": "hu",
"lang": "Hungarian",
"sense": "to reveal a secret; to disclose information — see also let the cat out of the bag",
"word": "kitálal"
},
{
"code": "hu",
"lang": "Hungarian",
"sense": "to reveal a secret; to disclose information — see also let the cat out of the bag",
"word": "eljár a szája"
},
{
"code": "it",
"lang": "Italian",
"sense": "to reveal a secret; to disclose information — see also let the cat out of the bag",
"word": "vuotare il sacco"
},
{
"code": "it",
"lang": "Italian",
"sense": "to reveal a secret; to disclose information — see also let the cat out of the bag",
"word": "sputare il rospo"
},
{
"code": "it",
"lang": "Italian",
"sense": "to reveal a secret; to disclose information — see also let the cat out of the bag",
"word": "spifferare"
},
{
"code": "pl",
"lang": "Polish",
"sense": "to reveal a secret; to disclose information — see also let the cat out of the bag",
"tags": [
"imperfective"
],
"word": "puszczać farbę"
},
{
"code": "pl",
"lang": "Polish",
"sense": "to reveal a secret; to disclose information — see also let the cat out of the bag",
"tags": [
"perfective"
],
"word": "puścić farbę"
},
{
"code": "pl",
"lang": "Polish",
"sense": "to reveal a secret; to disclose information — see also let the cat out of the bag",
"tags": [
"imperfective"
],
"word": "uchylać rąbka tajemnicy"
},
{
"code": "pl",
"lang": "Polish",
"sense": "to reveal a secret; to disclose information — see also let the cat out of the bag",
"tags": [
"perfective"
],
"word": "uchylić rąbka tajemnicy"
},
{
"code": "pt",
"lang": "Portuguese",
"sense": "to reveal a secret; to disclose information — see also let the cat out of the bag",
"word": "confessar"
},
{
"code": "ru",
"lang": "Russian",
"roman": "progovorítʹsja",
"sense": "to reveal a secret; to disclose information — see also let the cat out of the bag",
"tags": [
"perfective"
],
"word": "проговори́ться"
},
{
"code": "ru",
"lang": "Russian",
"roman": "proboltátʹsja",
"sense": "to reveal a secret; to disclose information — see also let the cat out of the bag",
"tags": [
"perfective"
],
"word": "проболта́ться"
},
{
"code": "scn",
"lang": "Sicilian",
"sense": "to reveal a secret; to disclose information — see also let the cat out of the bag",
"word": "curtigghiari"
},
{
"code": "so",
"lang": "Somali",
"sense": "to reveal a secret; to disclose information — see also let the cat out of the bag",
"word": "daadin digirta"
},
{
"code": "es",
"lang": "Spanish",
"sense": "to reveal a secret; to disclose information — see also let the cat out of the bag",
"word": "irse de la lengua"
},
{
"code": "es",
"lang": "Spanish",
"sense": "to reveal a secret; to disclose information — see also let the cat out of the bag",
"word": "cantar de plano"
},
{
"code": "es",
"lang": "Spanish",
"sense": "to reveal a secret; to disclose information — see also let the cat out of the bag",
"word": "soltar la sopa"
},
{
"code": "sv",
"lang": "Swedish",
"sense": "to reveal a secret; to disclose information — see also let the cat out of the bag",
"word": "spilla teet"
},
{
"code": "cy",
"lang": "Welsh",
"sense": "to reveal a secret; to disclose information — see also let the cat out of the bag",
"word": "gollwng y ffa"
}
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"ipa": "/ˌspɪl ðə ˈbiːnz/"
},
{
"audio": "En-au-spill the beans.ogg",
"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/6/65/En-au-spill_the_beans.ogg/En-au-spill_the_beans.ogg.mp3",
"ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/65/En-au-spill_the_beans.ogg"
},
{
"rhymes": "-iːnz"
}
],
"word": "spill the beans"
}
{
"etymology_text": "First attested in 20th century American English. One possible origin for the phrase is from an Ancient Greek practice of using different-coloured beans for voting, where spilling the jar containing them would unwantedly reveal the results, though this might be folk etymology.",
"forms": [
{
"form": "spills the beans",
"tags": [
"present",
"singular",
"third-person"
]
},
{
"form": "spilling the beans",
"tags": [
"participle",
"present"
]
},
{
"form": "spilled the beans",
"tags": [
"participle",
"past"
]
},
{
"form": "spilled the beans",
"tags": [
"past"
]
},
{
"form": "spilt the beans",
"tags": [
"participle",
"past"
]
},
{
"form": "spilt the beans",
"tags": [
"past"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "*",
"past2": "spilt the beans"
},
"expansion": "spill the beans (third-person singular simple present spills the beans, present participle spilling the beans, simple past and past participle spilled the beans or spilt the beans)",
"name": "en-verb"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "verb",
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
"English entries with incorrect language header",
"English idioms",
"English intransitive verbs",
"English lemmas",
"English multiword terms",
"English predicates",
"English terms with quotations",
"English terms with usage examples",
"English verbs",
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"Mandarin terms with redundant transliterations",
"Pages with 1 entry",
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"Rhymes:English/iːnz/3 syllables",
"Terms with Armenian translations",
"Terms with Cantonese translations",
"Terms with Danish translations",
"Terms with Dutch translations",
"Terms with Finnish translations",
"Terms with French translations",
"Terms with German translations",
"Terms with Greek translations",
"Terms with Hebrew translations",
"Terms with Hungarian translations",
"Terms with Italian translations",
"Terms with Mandarin translations",
"Terms with Polish translations",
"Terms with Portuguese translations",
"Terms with Russian translations",
"Terms with Sicilian translations",
"Terms with Somali translations",
"Terms with Spanish translations",
"Terms with Swedish translations",
"Terms with Welsh translations"
],
"examples": [
{
"text": "They had planned it as a surprise party, but somebody spilled the beans.",
"type": "example"
},
{
"ref": "2008, Patricia Cornwell, Point Of Origin:",
"text": "I guarantee you, someone's going to spill the beans and next thing this shit's all over the news.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2017, Wade Fowler, The Honey Trap:",
"text": "He accepted a contract to kill you and Frank DePalma. You because she couldn't be sure what Wennington had told you, and Frank because he got cold feet and was about to spill the beans.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "April 5 2022, Tina Brown, “How Princess Diana’s Dance With the Media Impacted William and Harry”, in Vanity Fair:",
"text": "More unsettling was the origin story of the infamous tell-all book Princess in Love. Diana claimed to be outraged in 1994 when Daily Express journalist Anna Pasternak spilled the beans of her affair with former army officer James Hewitt[…]",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2022, Spencer Coleman, Facade:",
"text": "Shall we meet up for a meal and I think I can be persuaded to spill the beans if I drink enough wine.",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"To reveal a secret; to disclose information."
],
"links": [
[
"reveal",
"reveal"
],
[
"secret",
"secret"
],
[
"disclose",
"disclose"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(intransitive, idiomatic) To reveal a secret; to disclose information."
],
"synonyms": [
{
"word": "let the cat out of the bag"
},
{
"word": "spill one's guts"
},
{
"word": "spill the tea"
}
],
"tags": [
"idiomatic",
"intransitive"
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"ipa": "/ˌspɪl ðə ˈbiːnz/"
},
{
"audio": "En-au-spill the beans.ogg",
"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/6/65/En-au-spill_the_beans.ogg/En-au-spill_the_beans.ogg.mp3",
"ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/65/En-au-spill_the_beans.ogg"
},
{
"rhymes": "-iːnz"
}
],
"translations": [
{
"code": "hy",
"lang": "Armenian",
"roman": "tʻapʻel tʻeyə",
"sense": "to reveal a secret; to disclose information — see also let the cat out of the bag",
"word": "թափել թեյը"
},
{
"code": "yue",
"lang": "Chinese Cantonese",
"roman": "baau³ liu² ceot¹ lai⁴",
"sense": "to reveal a secret; to disclose information — see also let the cat out of the bag",
"word": "爆料出嚟"
},
{
"code": "cmn",
"lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
"sense": "to reveal a secret; to disclose information — see also let the cat out of the bag",
"word": "露餡"
},
{
"code": "cmn",
"lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
"roman": "lòuxiàn",
"sense": "to reveal a secret; to disclose information — see also let the cat out of the bag",
"word": "露馅"
},
{
"code": "da",
"lang": "Danish",
"sense": "to reveal a secret; to disclose information — see also let the cat out of the bag",
"word": "spilde teen"
},
{
"code": "nl",
"lang": "Dutch",
"sense": "to reveal a secret; to disclose information — see also let the cat out of the bag",
"word": "een boekje opendoen"
},
{
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"sense": "to reveal a secret; to disclose information — see also let the cat out of the bag",
"word": "kieliä"
},
{
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"sense": "to reveal a secret; to disclose information — see also let the cat out of the bag",
"word": "paljastaa"
},
{
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"sense": "to reveal a secret; to disclose information — see also let the cat out of the bag",
"word": "laverrella"
},
{
"code": "fr",
"lang": "French",
"sense": "to reveal a secret; to disclose information — see also let the cat out of the bag",
"word": "cracher le morceau"
},
{
"code": "fr",
"lang": "French",
"sense": "to reveal a secret; to disclose information — see also let the cat out of the bag",
"word": "lâcher le morceau"
},
{
"code": "fr",
"lang": "French",
"sense": "to reveal a secret; to disclose information — see also let the cat out of the bag",
"word": "vendre la mèche"
},
{
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "to reveal a secret; to disclose information — see also let the cat out of the bag",
"word": "ausplaudern"
},
{
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "to reveal a secret; to disclose information — see also let the cat out of the bag",
"word": "auspacken"
},
{
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "to reveal a secret; to disclose information — see also let the cat out of the bag",
"word": "alles verraten"
},
{
"code": "el",
"lang": "Greek",
"roman": "chýno to tsái",
"sense": "to reveal a secret; to disclose information — see also let the cat out of the bag",
"word": "χύνω το τσάι"
},
{
"code": "he",
"lang": "Hebrew",
"roman": "hilshín",
"sense": "to reveal a secret; to disclose information — see also let the cat out of the bag",
"word": "הִלְשִׁין"
},
{
"code": "hu",
"lang": "Hungarian",
"sense": "to reveal a secret; to disclose information — see also let the cat out of the bag",
"word": "elárul"
},
{
"code": "hu",
"lang": "Hungarian",
"sense": "to reveal a secret; to disclose information — see also let the cat out of the bag",
"word": "kitálal"
},
{
"code": "hu",
"lang": "Hungarian",
"sense": "to reveal a secret; to disclose information — see also let the cat out of the bag",
"word": "eljár a szája"
},
{
"code": "it",
"lang": "Italian",
"sense": "to reveal a secret; to disclose information — see also let the cat out of the bag",
"word": "vuotare il sacco"
},
{
"code": "it",
"lang": "Italian",
"sense": "to reveal a secret; to disclose information — see also let the cat out of the bag",
"word": "sputare il rospo"
},
{
"code": "it",
"lang": "Italian",
"sense": "to reveal a secret; to disclose information — see also let the cat out of the bag",
"word": "spifferare"
},
{
"code": "pl",
"lang": "Polish",
"sense": "to reveal a secret; to disclose information — see also let the cat out of the bag",
"tags": [
"imperfective"
],
"word": "puszczać farbę"
},
{
"code": "pl",
"lang": "Polish",
"sense": "to reveal a secret; to disclose information — see also let the cat out of the bag",
"tags": [
"perfective"
],
"word": "puścić farbę"
},
{
"code": "pl",
"lang": "Polish",
"sense": "to reveal a secret; to disclose information — see also let the cat out of the bag",
"tags": [
"imperfective"
],
"word": "uchylać rąbka tajemnicy"
},
{
"code": "pl",
"lang": "Polish",
"sense": "to reveal a secret; to disclose information — see also let the cat out of the bag",
"tags": [
"perfective"
],
"word": "uchylić rąbka tajemnicy"
},
{
"code": "pt",
"lang": "Portuguese",
"sense": "to reveal a secret; to disclose information — see also let the cat out of the bag",
"word": "confessar"
},
{
"code": "ru",
"lang": "Russian",
"roman": "progovorítʹsja",
"sense": "to reveal a secret; to disclose information — see also let the cat out of the bag",
"tags": [
"perfective"
],
"word": "проговори́ться"
},
{
"code": "ru",
"lang": "Russian",
"roman": "proboltátʹsja",
"sense": "to reveal a secret; to disclose information — see also let the cat out of the bag",
"tags": [
"perfective"
],
"word": "проболта́ться"
},
{
"code": "scn",
"lang": "Sicilian",
"sense": "to reveal a secret; to disclose information — see also let the cat out of the bag",
"word": "curtigghiari"
},
{
"code": "so",
"lang": "Somali",
"sense": "to reveal a secret; to disclose information — see also let the cat out of the bag",
"word": "daadin digirta"
},
{
"code": "es",
"lang": "Spanish",
"sense": "to reveal a secret; to disclose information — see also let the cat out of the bag",
"word": "irse de la lengua"
},
{
"code": "es",
"lang": "Spanish",
"sense": "to reveal a secret; to disclose information — see also let the cat out of the bag",
"word": "cantar de plano"
},
{
"code": "es",
"lang": "Spanish",
"sense": "to reveal a secret; to disclose information — see also let the cat out of the bag",
"word": "soltar la sopa"
},
{
"code": "sv",
"lang": "Swedish",
"sense": "to reveal a secret; to disclose information — see also let the cat out of the bag",
"word": "spilla teet"
},
{
"code": "cy",
"lang": "Welsh",
"sense": "to reveal a secret; to disclose information — see also let the cat out of the bag",
"word": "gollwng y ffa"
}
],
"word": "spill the beans"
}
Download raw JSONL data for spill the beans meaning in All languages combined (10.0kB)
This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable All languages combined dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-11-06 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-10-02 using wiktextract (fbeafe8 and 7f03c9b). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.
If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.