put the lid on (something)

1. To induce something's failure. Unfortunately, a broken leg put the lid on my vacation to the ski resort.

2. To quash or suppress something; to control something so as to keep it from flourishing, increasing, or succeeding. We need to put the lid on rumors about the company going bankrupt. We decided to put the lid on the project since we didn't have enough funds to see it through to the end.

See also: lid, on, put

put the lid on

Also, keep the lid on. Suppress, as in I don't know how but we'll have to put the lid on that rumor about her, or Let's keep the lid on our suspicions. The word lid here is used in the sense of "a cover for a container." [Early 1900s]

See also: lid, on, put

The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. Copyright © 2003, 1997 by The Christine Ammer 1992 Trust. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

put the (or a) lid on

put a stop to. informal

1996 Observer Nothing's final. I haven't put the lid on anything.

See also: lid, on, put

put the (tin) lid on

be the culmination of a series of acts or events that makes things unbearable. British informal

1999 Chris Dolan Ascension Day Mum found she was pregnant a month before the wedding, then Dad put the tin lid on it by getting himself laid off.

See also: lid, on, put

keep/put a/the ˈlid on something

try to make sure that people do not do something or find out about something: The government wants to keep the lid on discussion of tax reforms at the moment.

put the (tin) ˈlid on something

(British English, informal) bring to an end an activity, your hopes or plans: I’ve got a place at an American university but I can’t afford to go, so that’s put the lid on that. ♢ It rained and rained, which put the tin lid on our plans for a picnic in the park.