"know when to fold 'em" meaning in English

See know when to fold 'em in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Verb

Forms: knows when to fold 'em [present, singular, third-person], knowing when to fold 'em [participle, present], knew when to fold 'em [past], known when to fold 'em [participle, past]
Etymology: An allusion to a poker player knowing when to cut their losses rather than continue in an unfavorable situation. Head templates: {{en-verb|know<,,knew,known> when to fold 'em}} know when to fold 'em (third-person singular simple present knows when to fold 'em, present participle knowing when to fold 'em, simple past knew when to fold 'em, past participle known when to fold 'em)
  1. (slang, informal) To exercise sound judgment in a situation that is precarious and uncertain. Tags: informal, slang
    Sense id: en-know_when_to_fold_'em-en-verb-XNO7W814 Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header

Inflected forms

Download JSON data for know when to fold 'em meaning in English (1.4kB)

{
  "etymology_text": "An allusion to a poker player knowing when to cut their losses rather than continue in an unfavorable situation.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "knows when to fold 'em",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "knowing when to fold 'em",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "knew when to fold 'em",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "known when to fold 'em",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "know<,,knew,known> when to fold 'em"
      },
      "expansion": "know when to fold 'em (third-person singular simple present knows when to fold 'em, present participle knowing when to fold 'em, simple past knew when to fold 'em, past participle known when to fold 'em)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To exercise sound judgment in a situation that is precarious and uncertain."
      ],
      "id": "en-know_when_to_fold_'em-en-verb-XNO7W814",
      "links": [
        [
          "exercise",
          "exercise"
        ],
        [
          "sound",
          "sound"
        ],
        [
          "judgment",
          "judgment"
        ],
        [
          "situation",
          "situation"
        ],
        [
          "precarious",
          "precarious"
        ],
        [
          "uncertain",
          "uncertain"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(slang, informal) To exercise sound judgment in a situation that is precarious and uncertain."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "informal",
        "slang"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "know when to fold 'em"
}

{
  "etymology_text": "An allusion to a poker player knowing when to cut their losses rather than continue in an unfavorable situation.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "knows when to fold 'em",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "knowing when to fold 'em",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "knew when to fold 'em",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "known when to fold 'em",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "know<,,knew,known> when to fold 'em"
      },
      "expansion": "know when to fold 'em (third-person singular simple present knows when to fold 'em, present participle knowing when to fold 'em, simple past knew when to fold 'em, past participle known when to fold 'em)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English informal terms",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English slang",
        "English verbs"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To exercise sound judgment in a situation that is precarious and uncertain."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "exercise",
          "exercise"
        ],
        [
          "sound",
          "sound"
        ],
        [
          "judgment",
          "judgment"
        ],
        [
          "situation",
          "situation"
        ],
        [
          "precarious",
          "precarious"
        ],
        [
          "uncertain",
          "uncertain"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(slang, informal) To exercise sound judgment in a situation that is precarious and uncertain."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "informal",
        "slang"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "know when to fold 'em"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-01 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-04-21 using wiktextract (f4fd8c9 and c9440ce). 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.