blow one's cover

Inadvertently give away one's secret identity, as in Mary came to the annual meeting pretending to be a shareholder and hoped no one would blow her cover . This expression uses blow in the sense of "expose or betray," a usage dating from Shakespeare's day.

Common Names:

Name	Pronounced	Usage
CirÍAco	-	Portuguese, Spanish
Alexandra	[.ælig'za:ndrə]
Arcadia	ahr-KAY-dee-ə (English)	Various
Szilveszter	SEEL-ves-ter	Hungarian
Afonso	a-FAWN-saw (Galician)	Portuguese, Galician
Icarus	IK-ə-rəs (English)	Greek Mythology (Latinized)