“The cat’s out of the bag”
This saying is a great one to use when you have the right opportunity. It basically means that the secret is out in the open and is no longer a secret.
Imagine this situation:
You plan to quit your job but you don’t want to tell too many people until after you actually quit. You decided to tell only one friend but don’t want to tell any other people. Now you are together with many friends, including the one you told. By accident, the friend you told you are going to quit your job asked you in front of everyone, “so when exactly are you going to quit”? Everyone hears this question and says, “What? I didn’t know you were planning on quitting”.
Then you could say, “Well, I guess the cat is out of the bag”. It means that the secret is out in the open now and I’m not going to hide from the truth anymore.
Andy
March 13th, 2008 at 5:46 am
i really like this story .hehe . it happened on me .and now i know how to express my feelings.
March 13th, 2008 at 6:39 am
I love this idiom very much , “The cat’s out of box” is funny. Thanks for Andy’s hard work. UP
March 13th, 2008 at 6:40 am
OH..OH…
“I GUESS THE CAT IS OUT OF THE BAG! ”
I LOVE LEARN SOMETHING NEW.
I JUST ALREAD TOLD TO MY BRAZIELIAN FRIENDS ABOUT THE SITE.
ME AND MY SISTER HEAR EVERY DAY.
THANKS
DANI.
March 13th, 2008 at 6:44 am
helo.I get this link from my email box.
March 13th, 2008 at 8:55 am
Now I have quitted,and it is really my situation.
The cat is out of the bag,everyone knows it now.
March 13th, 2008 at 9:03 am
Hello Andy
Thanks for your help.Its amazing that the same phrase I met in Russia in the same meaning.People of different nationality think in the same way.Its great.
March 13th, 2008 at 9:34 am
that was so nice and usefull andy!
and you are a great person too!
March 13th, 2008 at 10:12 am
What a nice idiom! I really love to learn new english idioms.
Tnx a lot Andy.
I look forward to learning another idiom from you.
March 13th, 2008 at 10:24 am
Boys, that’s a good one! Couldn’t be explained much better I think. To be honest, your explainations are mostly easy to understand and that’s helpful if you aren’t too complicated.
As Aida already wrote this morning that this phrase is similar to people in Russia, it’s the same for German people. Sometimes phrases seem to be global in their meaning or their usage.
But there are several examples, where phrases differ. One I’d like to put here: If you guys are extremely lucky (if you’d fallen in love with someone) you’d say “I’m on cloud nine”. In Germany, we’d say “auf Wolke sieben schweben” — which is cloud “seven”
surprised?
I appreciate your great podcast and your blog, the audio files always sweeten the boring time while I’m in my car on the way to work.
So please, please go on!
Best
regards,
Michael
March 13th, 2008 at 10:26 am
Very nice one…Useful one..thanks to our china 232 team…
March 13th, 2008 at 10:50 am
Thanks to Michael’s kind explanation I came across another good idiom,
and looked up it the dictionary. Belows are from Collins dictionary.
————————————————————————————–
If you say that someone is on cloud nine, you are emphasizing that they are very happy.[ INFORMAL ]
-> When Michael was born I was on cloud nine.
————————————————————————————–
What a funny thing is there is “Michael” in the example.
I guess Michael’s dad or mom has something to do with Collins.
If you don’t know “Michael”, see the reply above.
March 13th, 2008 at 11:45 am
I just want to say a different culture in my country, China, from others to the idiom of “someone is on cloud nine”. It means that someone would be in the Heaven after one’s death. Someone if who does a lot of good things helping huge number of people with his endless mercy, as kind of being a”Saint”, he will be able to enjoy his life in a peaceful world in the sky after passing away.
March 13th, 2008 at 12:00 pm
“The cat is out of the bag” it means somewhat that the cat was abused for a certain period of time in a closed bag, then set it free for some reasons. It is absolutely not allowed to do so in the rules of SPCA – Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
)
March 13th, 2008 at 12:57 pm
Andy and Add, you guys are great doing your job, this blog is nice , thank you both for bring this lessons. I am lerning a lot.
I like this a lot. ” the cat is out of the bag” I have all ready past this experence.
bye.
March 13th, 2008 at 1:05 pm
I like a lot this lesson. I have all ready pass this experience.
the cat is out of the bug.
Very nice.
Thank you Andy and Add.
March 13th, 2008 at 3:49 pm
Another good lesson from you guys, you’re the best!
March 13th, 2008 at 5:29 pm
You guys are incredible! I don’t have words to describe you. I speak like a native now. At least, that’s what my friends tell me. Thanks a lot for your help! What would the world be if we had more people like Andy and Add?
Keep up the great job!!
March 13th, 2008 at 9:50 pm
In France, we ‘re used to say we’re on the “seventh sky” rather than “cloud nine” : different countries, different ways to say the same idea …
Another one, add ?
March 14th, 2008 at 3:18 am
hehe, it’s interesting to learn. Thanks so much.
March 14th, 2008 at 5:09 am
Very good! I like to study english like this, very interesting!
March 14th, 2008 at 6:59 am
As we started here reading something about a cat, how about this: If I’m not wrong, Americans talk about nine lifes of a cat. Surprised if I’d say that a German cat is considered to have seven lifes? Strange thing…
March 14th, 2008 at 9:43 am
Your explanation is so clear,I got the meaning.I really don’t like the situation of “The cat’s out of bag”,I think it will make me embarrassed~~
March 15th, 2008 at 1:15 pm
That’s a great sentence..
Actually, I really want to know more about that kinda language..
Thanks
March 19th, 2008 at 3:28 am
for a long time, i don’t online. when i comeback i have just this story. it is good idiom. i think i should online evry morning for study idiom. thanks
April 19th, 2008 at 1:50 pm
Well ,i think these phrases and idioms are very useful.
Thank you guys
Well done !!!
May 18th, 2008 at 1:18 pm
I am absolutely amazed by your site and your ideas. Learning English in this way is no sweat and much more efficient than from books, films or others resources.
As regards this ‘cat’ idiom, I began to wonder how the “pig in a poke’ has changed into ‘ a cat out of the bag’. In my native language (Hungarian) we say ‘ a cat in the bag’ when we mean you don’t know what the real meaning or content of sth is. When a secret is revealed, however, we say ‘the nail has stuck out of the bag’. Funny tranformations, aren’t they.
Anyway, idioms are great fun and help you a lot to understand the way of thinking, traditions and even history of other nations.
Thanks again for this awesome site.
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