Meaning

1 senses

  1. (idiomatic)To reveal a secret; to disclose information.

    They had planned it as a surprise party, but somebody spilled the beans.

    ausplaudern, auspacken, alles verraten

    проговори́тьсяprogovorítʹsja, проболта́тьсяproboltátʹsja

More definitions
  • divulge confidential information or secrets

Translations

7 languages
Русский
By meaning 1
to reveal a secret; to disclose information — see also let the cat out of the bag:
Deutsch
By meaning 1
to reveal a secret; to disclose information — see also let the cat out of the bag:

Origin

First attested in 20th century American English. One possible origin for the phrase is fro

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.

Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source

Forms

spills the beans, spilling the beans, spilled the beans, spilled the beans
Base formspill the beans · to spill the beans
3rd person singularspills the beans
Present participlespilling the beans
Past simplespilled the beans / spilt the beans
Past participlespilled the beans / spilt the beans

irregular · Lesson

Present simpleLesson

I, you, we, theyspill the beans
he, she, itspills the beans

Past simpleLesson

all personsspilled the beans

Present perfectLesson

I, you, we, theyhave spilled the beans
he, she, ithas spilled the beans

Future simple (will)Lesson

all personswill spill the beans

Synonyms

11 synonyms
let the cat out of the bagspill one's gutsspill the tea
Close in meaning

Word family

1 related words
Derivedbeanspilling

Lessons for this word

3 lessons

See also

neighbours in the dictionary
spikespikyspillA2spillagespinB2spinachB1
spill the beans — meaning, examples, forms, synonyms | Krumeto