spill the beans

/spɪl ðə binz/

/spɪl ðə binz/

Other forms: spilled the beans; spilling the beans; spills the beans; spilt the beans

When you spill the beans, you give away private information. If your friend warns you not to spill the beans, it means she doesn't want you to tell anyone her secret.

You might, for example, spill the beans about the surprise party your sister was planning for your dad — and then worry that your sister is going to be furious. While spill seems to have been used since the sixteenth century to mean "divulge," the phrase spill the beans comes from the early twentieth century United States. In addition to beans, early versions had people spilling both soup and guts.

Definitions of spill the beans

1. verb

   divulge confidential information or secrets
   synonyms: babble, babble out, blab, blab out, let the cat out of the bag, peach, sing, talk, tattle

   spill, talk

   reveal information

   type of:

   break, bring out, disclose, discover, divulge, expose, give away, let on, let out, reveal, unwrap

   make known to the public information that was previously known only to a few people or that was meant to be kept a secret