Don't spill the beans (idiom)

For the game, see Don't Spill the Beans (game).

Don't spill the beans is an English language idiom That means "to inopportunely or accidentally reveal a secret."

There are a number of folk etymology hypotheses for its origin, some attributing it to the ancient Greek voting methodology of gathering beans in a jar, or to agricultural origins. However, the phrase first came into use in the early 20th century, in America, which tends to not fit in with these explanations. It is likely that the phrase originated within the American Great Depression, among the transient poor under-culture (the hobo culture).

Sometimes the phrase may be changed to spilled the beans, which means, unlike the original phrase, "to have given away or told a secret".