ace up one's sleeve

English

WOTD – 7 August 2006

Etymology

From the game of poker, from the dishonest hiding of a high-value Ace card for use during play.

Noun

ace up one's sleeve (plural aces up one's sleeve)

1. (idiomatic) A surprise advantage of which others are not aware.

Translations

a surprise advantage of which others are not aware

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 王牌 (zh) (wángpái)

• Czech: Eso v rukávu
• Estonian: Trump tagataskust
• Finnish: ässä hihassa
• French: atout dans la manche m
• German: Ass im Ärmel n
• Italian: asso nella manica

• Japanese: 切り札 (きりふだ, kirifuda)
• Norwegian: ess i ermet
• Polish: as w rękawie
• Portuguese: carta nas mangas f
• Russian: туз в рукаве́ (tuz v rukavé), козы́рна́я ка́рта f (kozýrnája kárta)
• Serbo-Croatian: кец у рукаву
• Swedish: äss i rockärmen