bean

(bēn)

a. Any of various twining herbs of the genus Phaseolus in the pea family, native to the Americas, having leaves with three leaflets and variously colored flowers, and widely cultivated for their edible pods and seeds.

b. A seed or pod of any of these plants.

2. Any of several related plants or their seeds or pods, such as the adzuki bean, broad bean, or soybean.

3. Any of various other plants or their seeds or fruits, especially those suggestive of beans such as the coffee bean or vanilla bean.

4. Slang A person's head.

5. beans Slang A small amount: I don't know beans about investing.

6. Chiefly British A fellow; a chap.

tr.v. beaned, bean·ing, beans Slang

To hit (another) on the head with a thrown object, especially a pitched baseball.

Idioms:

full of beans

1. Energetic; frisky: The children were too full of beans to sit still.

2. Badly mistaken: Don't believe him; he's full of beans.

spill the beans

To disclose a secret.

[Middle English ben, broad bean, from Old English bēan; see bha-bhā- in Indo-European roots.]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

spill the beans

To let out a secret; from a method of voting in secret societies in ancient Greece using white or black beans. To upset the container and let everyone see how many black beans (negative votes) it contained would be potentially embarrassing.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Verb

spill the beans - divulge confidential information or secrets; "Be careful--his secretary talks"

babble out, blab, blab out, let the cat out of the bag, peach, tattle, babble, sing, talk

disclose, let on, divulge, expose, give away, let out, reveal, unwrap, discover, bring out, break - make known to the public information that was previously known only to a few people or that was meant to be kept a secret; "The auction house would not disclose the price at which the van Gogh had sold"; "The actress won't reveal how old she is"; "bring out the truth"; "he broke the news to her"; "unwrap the evidence in the murder case"

talk, spill - reveal information; "If you don't oblige me, I'll talk!"; "The former employee spilled all the details"

Translations

يَكْشِف السِّر

všechno vyzradit

vendre la mèche

kikotyog

leysa frá skjóîunni

plapre ut med

všetko prezradiť

sır açıklamakyumurtlamak

不慎泄漏

spill

(spil) verb – past tense, past participle spilt (-t) , spilled –

to (cause something to) fall or run out (usually accidentally). He spilt milk on the floor; Vegetables spilled out of the burst bag.

spill the beans

to give away a secret. By Monday it was evident that someone had spilled the beans to the newspapers.