Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Email
Answers.com

trump card

 
Dictionary: trump card

n.
  1. Games. A card in the trump suit, held in reserve for winning a trick.
  2. A key resource to be used at an opportune moment; a trump: "[They] seem determined to use the agreement as a trump card to obtain ... all the advantages they feel they deserve" (Christian Science Monitor).

Search unanswered questions...
Enter a question here...
Search: All sources Community Q&A Reference topics
Thesaurus: trump card
Top

noun

    Something, especially something held in reserve, that gives one a decisive advantage: trump. Informal clincher. Idioms: ace in the hole. See help/harm/harmless, win/lose/recovery.

Idioms: trump card
Top

A key resource to gain an advantage at the opportune moment, as in That surprise witness was the defense's trump card, or She played her trump card, announcing that the Senator would speak. This expression transfers the trump card of games such as bridge, which can win over a card of another suit, to other kinds of advantage. [Early 1800s]


WordNet: trump card
Top
Note: click on a word meaning below to see its connections and related words.

The noun has one meaning:

Meaning #1: a playing card in the suit that has been declared trumps
  Synonym: trump


 
 
Learn More
trump (Idiom)
card (Idiom)
hold all the aces (Idiom)

Post a question - any question - to the WikiAnswers community:

 

Copyrights:

Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
Thesaurus. Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary Copyright © 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
Idioms. The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. Copyright © 1997 by The Christine Ammer 1992 Trust. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
WordNet. WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.  Read more

 

Mentioned in