give someone their cards

verb

"give-someone-their-cards" is a 21-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“give someone their cards” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

Unranked
below top-frequency English
24
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - To dismiss someone from employment; to fire or make redundant.

Corpus desk

Index EN-give-someone-their-cards · give someone their cards · English

give someone their cards · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-MEGA 24 letters
  • VOW-9 9 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-THIN "G" thin
  • PHOTO-UNK Peer pending

Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Key facts for give someone their cards
PropertyValue
Headwordgive someone their cards
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechVerb
Letters24
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “give someone their cards” in English

give someone their cardsranks outside the top 100,000 English headwords, in the long tail of specialist, archaic, or seldom-used vocabulary, exactly the territory where a reader stops mid-sentence to double-check spelling.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

give someone their cards is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as averb. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "To dismiss someone from employment; to fire or make redundant.".

No generated misspelling entries exist for give someone their cards in our index, a sign its spelling follows regular English conventions. Our dataset records no confusable match here, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.

Our source data has no etymology on file for this entry, so its spelling is best read as a straightforward mapping from sound to letter. The correct English form is give someone their cards, spelled G-I-V-E- -S-O-M-E-O-N-E- -T-H-E-I-R- -C-A-R-D-S.

Definition

  1. 1
    To dismiss someone from employment; to fire or make redundant.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how give someone their cards appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. HEAD WAITER: It’s filthy! Gaston, find out who washed this up and give them their cards immediately!
  2. Her noble husband, in urgent need of an heir, has dispatched her here with instructions to get herself into working order; should this not come to pass, Monica will be given her cards and told to vacate the premises so that Sir John can make alternative arrangements.

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "give someone their cards"?
"give someone their cards" is spelled G-I-V-E- -S-O-M-E-O-N-E- -T-H-E-I-R- -C-A-R-D-S.
What does "give someone their cards" mean?
As a verb, "give someone their cards" means: To dismiss someone from employment; to fire or make redundant.
What language does "give someone their cards" come from?
"give someone their cards" is a English word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list