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trump card
[ truhmp kahrd truhmp kahrd ]
noun
- Cards. trump 1( def 1a ).
- Informal. something that gives one person or group the advantage over another:
The surprise witness was his trump card.
trump card
- In general, something capable of making a decisive difference when used at the right moment; in certain card games, trump is the suit designated as having precedence over the others: “The prosecutor was about to win the case, when the defense lawyer produced her trump card: an eyewitness who testified that the accused was nowhere near the scene of the crime.”
Word History and Origins
Origin of trump card1
Idioms and Phrases
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]Example Sentences
Friendship is the trump card in the movement for equality, not etiology.
Of course, the biggest trump card of all is Singh and Patel.
In “Starkville City Jail,” he made fun of an overly aggressive police force, but “San Quentin” was his trump card.
It would give Israeli leaders a trump card against internal demands for greater Palestinian rights and equality.
Sanctions against Burma may remain in place for some time, since they are the trump card to push for further reforms.
Suddenly, as the Count dealt a king as trump card, he sprang to his feet knocking over the chair behind him.
He produced it with gentle ostentation, as one would a trump card.
In stock we had one trump card, and only one, and we played it many a time during that somewhat crowded day.
The story of that Limfjord charter was her trump card, and never failed to quell Soren's faint attempts at retort.
Stillness, absolute immobility, was the trump-card to be always played in the wilderness when in doubt.
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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
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