card1
• noun 1 thick, stiff paper or thin cardboard. 2 a piece of card for writing on, especially a postcard or greetings card. 3 a business card or visiting card. 4 a small rectangular piece of plastic containing machine-readable personal data, e.g. a credit card or cash card. 5 a playing card. 6 (cards) a game played with playing cards. 7 (cards) Brit. informal documents relating to an employee, especially for tax and national insurance, held by the employer. 8 informal, dated or N. Amer. an odd or amusing person. • verb write on a card, especially for indexing. — PHRASES a card up one’s sleeve Brit. a plan or asset that is kept secret until it is needed. give someone their cards (or get one’s cards) Brit. informal dismiss someone (or be dismissed) from employment. hold all the cards be in a very strong position. on the cards informal possible or likely. play the &em;&em; card exploit a specified issue or idea, especially for political advantage: he plays the race card. play one’s cards right make the best use of one’s assets and opportunities. put (or lay) one’s cards on the table be completely open and honest in declaring one’s intentions. — ORIGIN Old French carte, from Greek khartes ‘papyrus leaf’.
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