"close to the vest" meaning in English

See close to the vest in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Adverb

Forms: closer to the vest [comparative], closest to the vest [superlative], close to one's vest [alternative]
Head templates: {{en-adv|+first|head=close to the vest}} close to the vest (comparative closer to the vest, superlative closest to the vest)
  1. In a reserved or secretive manner. Hypernyms: guardedly Related terms: closely held
    Sense id: en-close_to_the_vest-en-adv-bmYPrLy3 Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries

Inflected forms

Alternative forms

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "closer to the vest",
      "tags": [
        "comparative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "closest to the vest",
      "tags": [
        "superlative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "close to one's vest",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "+first",
        "head": "close to the vest"
      },
      "expansion": "close to the vest (comparative closer to the vest, superlative closest to the vest)",
      "name": "en-adv"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "adv",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "In a reserved or secretive manner."
      ],
      "hypernyms": [
        {
          "word": "guardedly"
        }
      ],
      "id": "en-close_to_the_vest-en-adv-bmYPrLy3",
      "related": [
        {
          "word": "closely held"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "close to the vest"
}

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "closer to the vest",
      "tags": [
        "comparative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "closest to the vest",
      "tags": [
        "superlative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "close to one's vest",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "+first",
        "head": "close to the vest"
      },
      "expansion": "close to the vest (comparative closer to the vest, superlative closest to the vest)",
      "name": "en-adv"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "adv",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "closely held"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English adverbs",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "In a reserved or secretive manner."
      ],
      "hypernyms": [
        {
          "word": "guardedly"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "close to the vest"
}

Download raw JSONL data for close to the vest meaning in English (0.8kB)

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2026-03-25 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2026-03-03 using wiktextract (05c257f and 9d9a410). 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.