put

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put (one's) (own) house in order

To resolve one's own personal problems or business affairs (especially before criticizing those of others). The president and his administration sorely need to put their house in order or they may not live to see a second term in office. Jim should go about putting his own house in order before he starts criticizing how I live my life!
See also: house, order, put

put (one's) cards on the table

To reveal something that one has kept hidden, such as one's motives, intentions, opinion, etc.; to be very candid. A reference to a player in a card game revealing the cards that they were holding. You deserve honesty, so I'm going to put my cards on the table. I can't offer you this job, but we may have another position that you'd be good for. Brian says he starts every relationship by putting his cards on the table—that way there's no secrets.
See also: card, on, put, table

put all (one's) eggs in one basket

To invest, devote, or commit all of one's energy or resources into a single venture, opportunity, or goal, generally at the risk of losing everything in the event that that thing fails or does not come to fruition. She has put all her eggs in one basket with this merger deal. If it doesn't work out, I doubt her company can survive. I applied to several colleges so I wasn't putting all my eggs in one basket.
See also: all, basket, egg, one, put
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2022 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.

put

/have all (one's) eggs in one basket Informal
To risk everything on a single venture.

put

/lay (one's) cards on the table
To make frank and clear revelation, as of one's motives or intentions.

put

/set (one's) house in order
To organize one's affairs in a sensible, logical way.
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
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References in classic literature ?
She spends the forenoon in what she calls doing nothing, which may consist in stitching so hard that you would swear she was an over-worked seamstress at it for her life, or you will find her on a table with nails in her mouth, and anon she has to be chased from the garret (she has suddenly decided to change her curtains), or she is under the bed searching for band-boxes and asking sternly where we have put that bonnet.
He is to see that she does not slip away fired by a conviction, which suddenly overrides her pages, that the kitchen is going to rack and ruin for want of her, and she is to recall him to himself should he put his foot in the fire and keep it there, forgetful of all save his hero's eloquence.
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Solomon had several excellent mottoes for keeping them at their work, such as "Never put off laying to-day, because you can lay to-morrow," and "In this world there are no second chances," and yet here was Peter gaily putting off and none the worse for it.
They like crocus and hyacinth time best of all, as they are partial to a bit of colour, but tulips (except white ones, which are the fairy-cradles) they consider garish, and they sometimes put off dressing like tulips for days, so that the beginning of the tulip weeks is almost the best time to catch them.
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We fixed it up away down in the woods, and cooked it there; and we got it done at last, and very satisfactory, too; but not all in one day; and we had to use up three wash-pans full of flour before we got through, and we got burnt pretty much all over, in places, and eyes put out with the smoke; because, you see, we didn't want nothing but a crust, and we couldn't prop it up right, and she would always cave in.
We took and lined her with dough, and set her in the coals, and loaded her up with rag rope, and put on a dough roof, and shut down the lid, and put hot embers on top, and stood off five foot, with the long handle, cool and comfortable, and in fifteen minutes she turned out a pie that was a satisfac- tion to look at.
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She put her arms round Yulka and held the little girl close to her.
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'Pray lift me upon chair,' said he to the princess, 'and let me sit next to you.' As soon as she had done this, the frog said, 'Put your plate nearer to me, that I may eat out of it.' This she did, and when he had eaten as much as he could, he said, 'Now I am tired; carry me upstairs, and put me into your bed.' And the princess, though very unwilling, took him up in her hand, and put him upon the pillow of her own bed, where he slept all night long.
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153 F: And Homer put forward the following verses as Lesches gives them:
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As he sat down opposite to me at a table, with his back to the door by which we had entered, he put out his rough hand again, and grasped mine warmly.
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Joe sat with her head bending over her needlework, I put my mouth into the forms of saying to Joe, "What's a convict?" Joe put his mouth into the forms of returning such a highly elaborate answer, that I could make out nothing of it but the single word "Pip."
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Don't remind me that I have just rejected the palace of crystal for the sole reason that one cannot put out one's tongue at it.
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Accordingly, the forger was put to Death; the utterer of a bad note was put to Death; the unlawful opener of a letter was put to Death; the purloiner of forty shillings and sixpence was put to Death; the holder of a horse at Tellson's door, who made off with it, was put to Death; the coiner of a bad shilling was put to Death; the sounders of three-fourths of the notes in the whole gamut of Crime, were put to Death.
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Why shouldn't I rush along and put my pie into Ribby's oven when Ribby isn't there?"
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The next morning after breakfast Joe put Merrylegs into the mistress' low chaise to take him to the vicarage; he came first and said good-by to us, and Merrylegs neighed to us from the yard.
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