to have up one's sleeve
Preserved but no longer current.
Meaning · English
To hold in reserve; to have it ready to bring out in a case of emergency. The allusion is to conjurers, who frequently conceal in the sleeve the means by which they do the trick.
Era: ca. 1898 (Victorian)
Sources & notes
Reproduced from Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898 edition, public domain; archive.org, retrieved 2026-07-31; OCR text, minor errors possible). Reflects the scholarship and attitudes of its era.
Common questions
What does “to have up one's sleeve” mean?
To hold in reserve; to have it ready to bring out in a case of emergency. The allusion is to conjurers, who frequently conceal in the sleeve the means by which they do the trick.
Is “to have up one's sleeve” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.