Meaning
To reveal secret or confidential information, often prematurely or without authorization.
Unlike a purely accidental slip, it can describe either a careless disclosure or a deliberate decision to finally tell what’s been kept quiet.
Origin
The popular story tracing this idiom to ancient Greek voting practices — where beans were supposedly dropped into a jar to cast a secret ballot, with a spilled jar prematurely revealing the result — is widely repeated online but is not supported by etymological reference works and should be treated as folk etymology rather than documented fact; it leaves an unexplained gap of well over two thousand years between ancient Greece and the phrase’s actual appearance in English. What is documented is more modest and more recent: “spill the beans” is recorded in American English from 1910, initially meaning “to spoil an undertaking or situation,” with the now-familiar sense “to reveal a secret” following by 1919.
Examples
Come on, spill the beans — what happened at the meeting?
She finally spilled the beans about the engagement.
Someone spilled the beans to the press before the announcement.
A: You know something, don’t you? B: Fine, I’ll spill the beans.
Frequently asked questions
What does 'Spill the beans' mean?
To reveal secret or confidential information, often prematurely or without authorization.
Unlike a purely accidental slip, it can describe either a careless disclosure or a deliberate decision to finally tell what’s been kept quiet.