cards on table
Reveal your intentions
To put one's cards on the table is to reveal one's intentions, resources, or position openly—from card games where showing your hand ends concealment.
The phrase signals a shift toward honesty or directness: Let me put my cards on the table: I'm not interested in selling.
Someone with their cards on the table has nothing hidden.
- pokerHearth implement for coals
- bluffCalculated false front
- show your handReveal hidden intentions
- revealMake something visible
- honestyTruthfulness, sincerity
showdown · moment of truth · transparency · full disclosure · chips · gamble · stakes · deal · hand · fold · bet · all-in · truth · confession · come clean · candid · straight talk · open
- authenticityauthentic, genuine, real, fake, counterfeit
- honestyhonesty, truthfulness, candor, sincerity, dishonesty
- strategic expressionsultimatum, bluff, gambit, leverage, bargaining chip
cards on tablehidden agenda
Undisclosed true purpose
keeping secrets · holding back · poker face · keeping mum · tight-lipped
cards on tablebeating around the bush
Avoiding direct communication
evasive · coy · hedging · equivocating · noncommittal
cards on tablebluffing
Deceiving about one's position
lying through one's teeth · playing games · deceptive · duplicitous · two-faced
card, cards, table, tables, tabled, tabling, tabular, tabulate, tabulation