Meaning
To keep your plans, intentions or feelings deliberately secret so that others cannot anticipate, second-guess or exploit them. Common in talk of negotiations, politics and sport; the usual American form substitutes 'vest' for 'chest'. Neutral to mildly cagey in tone; standard in business, political and sporting reporting. Regional use: General English ('chest' form chiefly British; 'vest' form chiefly American).
Origin
The metaphor comes straight from card games such as poker and bridge: a player holds the dealt cards close to the chest or vest so that opponents cannot glimpse them. The American 'vest' form and the British 'chest' form are the same idiom, with keep, play and hold all used as the verb. Dating is uncertain: popular reference sites place it in 1860s American poker culture, but those claims carry no citations. Firmer evidence, summarised in Christine Ammer's Dictionary of Clichés, dates the figurative cliché to the mid-20th century and cites Agatha Christie's The Pale Horse (1961) as an early literary use. The safest statement is that the literal card-room practice is 19th-century and the figurative phrase is securely attested only from the mid-1900s.
Research Sources
References used to check this entry’s meaning, history, or documented forms.
Variants
- hold your cards close to your chest
- keep your cards close to your vest
- play it close to the vest
- play your cards close to the vest
- play your cards close to your chest
Usage Examples
- The minister kept her cards close to her chest when reporters pressed her about a possible cabinet reshuffle.
- Negotiators on both sides played their cards close to their chests until the final session of the talks.
- He holds his cards close to his chest, so nobody in the office knows whether he intends to apply for the promotion.