MEANING
To reveal someone’s secret identity or role, undermining their attempt to remain undiscovered.
Use it for
exposing an undercover role; revealing who someone really is; describing a disguise being compromised; showing an accidental recognition that ruins concealmentDistinguishes exposing a concealed identity or role from revealing any ordinary secret. Writing functions: Exposure of identity.
Words that belong together
- blow an agent’s cover
- risk blowing someone’s cover
On the page
Calling her by her real name would have blown her cover.
The familiar greeting nearly blew the investigator’s cover before the interview began.
Word forms
- Base
- blow someone's cover
Usage notes
Verbal idiom: blow/blows/blew/blown/blowing someone’s cover. The possessive identifies whose concealed identity or role is exposed. Register: informal. Commonness: common (qualitative editorial estimate, informed by dictionaries/corpus).
Practice this word in a sentenceYour margin notes
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