subs. (common).—1. A device; expedient; or undertaking; that which is likely to attain its object, or through which success is sure. Thus we have such expressions as a ‘good CARD,’ a ‘strong CARD,’ a ‘safe CARD,’ a ‘likely, or a doubtful CARD.’ [Figurative; from card playing.] THAT’S A SURE CARD sounds modern, but as Lowell has pointed out it is to be found in the old interlude of ‘Thursytes’ (1537).
c. 1696. B. E., A New Dictionary of the Canting Crew. A SURE CARD, a trusty Tool, or Confiding Man.
1763. F. BROOKE, The History of Lady Julia Mandeville, in BARBAULD, British Novelists (1820), xxvii., 23. Poor fellow! I pity him; but marriage is his only CARD. [M.]
1826. SCOTT, Woodstock, III. xiv., 358. No CARD seemed to turn up favourable to the royal cause.
2. A character; an odd fish; an eccentric; generally coupled with such adjectives as ‘knowing,’ ‘old,’ ‘queer,’ ‘downy,’ ‘rum,’ etc. [Apparently derived from the card-table, such expressions as a ‘sure card,’ a ‘sound card,’ being of very ancient use. Osric tells Hamlet that Laertes is the CARD and calendar of gentry.—(Hamlet, v. 2.)]
1835. DICKENS, Sketches by Boz, 264. Mr. Thomas Potter, whose great aim it was to be considered as a knowing CARD.
1852. DICKENS, Bleak House, ch. xx., p. 173. ‘Such an old CARD as this; so deep, so sly, and secret.’
1854. WHYTE-MELVILLE, General Bounce, ch. ii. Frank Hardingstone was, to use their favourite word, ‘a great CARD’ amongst all the associates of his age and standing.
1854. WHYTE-MELVILLE, General Bounce, ch. xii. A quaint boy at Eton, cool hand at Oxford, a deep CARD in the regiment, man or woman never yet had the best of ‘Uppy.’
1864. DICKENS, Our Mutual Friend, bk. III., ch. i. ‘You’re one of the Patriarchs; you’re a shaky old CARD; and you can’t be in love with this Lizzie.’
3. (common).—The ‘ticket’; the ‘figure’; the correct thing. [Possibly from the K’RECT CARD (q.v.) of racing.]
1851. H. MAYHEW, London Labour and the London Poor, II., p. 47. I’ve got 10s. often for a great coat, and higher and lower, oftener lower in course; but 10s. is about the CARD for a good thing.
Verb.—Also CARDING, subs. (Irish Nationalist).—A peculiar form of torture, which consists in the application of the card, a spiked or toothed implement used in the preparation of flax and wool, to the naked shoulders, &c., and is commonly reserved for ‘unpatriotic’ girls and women.
1889. The Scots Observer. ‘They never told the ramping crowd to CARD a woman’s hide.’
TO GIVE ONE CARDS, phr. (American).—To give one an advantage. The English equivalent, ‘to give points,’ is derived from the billiard saloon. An analogous French phrase is faire un bœuf.
1888. Grip (Toronto), May. You know that Artie found a Chinaman out in ’Frisco who could GIVE HIM CARDS and spades and beat him out.
ON THE CARDS, phr. (common).—Within the range of probability. [Dickens popularised the expression, which appears to mean ‘possible to turn up,’ as anything in the game when the cards are turned up. Still, it is not unlikely that the phrase originated with cartomancy, at a time when cards were frequently consulted as to the issue of enterprises.] See Notes and Queries, 7 S. iv., 507; v. 14, 77, 495.
1749. SMOLLETT, Gil Blas, Tr. I showed them tricks which they did not know to be ON THE CARDS, and yet acknowledged to be better than their own.
1813. SIR R. WILSON, Diary, II., 40. It is not OUT OF THE CARDS that we might do more. [M.]
1849. DICKENS, David Copperfield, I., p. 219. By way of going in for anything that might be ON THE CARDS,… petition to the House of Commons, etc.
1868. WILKIE COLLINS, The Moonstone, I., p. 149. It’s quite ON THE CARDS, sir, that you have put the clue into our hands.
1874. The Saturday Review, April, p. 488. When they discovered that a Restoration was not at present ON THE CARDS, they became Conservatives.
1890. H. D. TRAILL, Saturday Songs, ‘A Bulgarian Appeal,’ p. 43.
| I’ll be shot if I do, though it’s equally true | |
| That it’s quite ON THE CARDS I’ll be shot if I don’t. |
TO PACK, STOCK, or PUT UP, THE CARDS, phr. (Western American).—To prepare cards for cheating purposes.—See CONCAVES, PACK, and STOCK BROADS.
TO SPEAK BY THE CARD, phr. (general).—To speak with precision; or with the utmost accuracy. [An allusion to the card of the mariner’s compass.]
1596. SHAKESPEARE, Hamlet, v. 1. 149. We must SPEAK BY THE CARD, or equivocation will undo us.
1867. YATES, The Forlorn Hope, i., p. 23. ‘Are you SPEAKING BY THE CARD, Duncan?’ said Count Bulow, with the slightest foreign accent.
1879. A. TROLLOPE, Thackeray [in ‘English Men of Letters’ series], p. 186. Henry Esmond … however, is not made to SPEAK altogether BY THE CARD, or he would be unnatural.
