Letting the cat out of the bag - Wikipedia Letting the cat out of the bag Look up let the cat out of the bag in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. Wikiversity uses let the cat out of the bag in an essay. Letting the cat out of the bag or out of the box is a colloquialism meaning to reveal facts previously hidden. The facts were usually hidden from a specific target audience or theatrical audience. Examples include : revealing a conspiracy ( friendly or not ) to its target in a movie or play, the revelation of a plot twist letting an outsider into an inner circle of knowledge ( e.g., explaining an in - joke ) Etymology The derivation of the phrase is not clear. One suggestion is that the phrase refers to the whip - like `` cat o'nine tails '', an instrument of punishment once used on Royal Navy vessels. The instrument was purportedly stored in a red sack, and a sailor who revealed the transgressions of another would be `` letting the cat out of the bag ''. Another suggested derivation is from the `` pig in a poke '' scam, where a customer buying a suckling pig in a sack would actually be sold a ( less valuable ) cat, and would not realise the deception until the bag was opened. Johannes Agricola made reference to the expression `` let the cat out of the bag '' in a letter to Martin Luther on 4 May 1530 as referenced in Lyndal Roper 's 2016 biography about Martín Luther. Both of these suggestions are rejected by Snopes.com, who find no evidence of it originating in naval slang, nor of whips being stored in sacks, and consider it `` nigh on impossible to mistake a cat for a pig ''. References ^ Jump up to : Let the Cat out of the Bag, at Snopes.com ; by Barbara Mikkelsen ; published 16 July 2012 ; retrieved 31 May, 2013 This vocabulary - related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Letting_the_cat_out_of_the_bag&oldid=829856008 '' Categories : Vocabulary and usage stubs English phrases Metaphors referring to animals Talk About Wikipedia Add links This page was last edited on 11 March 2018, at 05 : 41. About Wikipedia

Question: where did the saying the cat's out of the bag come from
Answer: derivation of the phrase is not clear