tip the gaff

verb

To give away how a magic trick is accomplished.

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Meanings

verbtip the gaff (third-person singular simple present tips the gaff, present participle tipping the gaff, simple past and past participle tipped the gaff)

present singular third person tips the gaff · participle present tipping the gaff · participle past tipped the gaff · past tipped the gaff

  1. To give away how a magic trick is accomplished.

    Penn and Teller see their style as rejecting the assumption that “the people in the audience are ignorant savages who will fall at our feet and worship us for performing supernatural miracles.” Penn may enjoy describing the “Penn & Teller” approach to magic as tipping the gaff...

    1989, Calvin Trillin, “A Couple of Eccentric Guys”, in The New Yorker
  2. To reveal a disguise or something hidden.

    1914: The Smart Set: A Magazine of Cleverness, Volume 42, "The Parasite" by George Bronson-Howard Lady! She couldn't disguise herself as a lady with that Slavonic map of hers tipping the gaff, and those heavy hoofs of hers.

Cite this entry
APA

tip the gaff. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/tip%20the%20gaff

MLA

“tip the gaff.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/tip%20the%20gaff. Accessed November 5, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “tip the gaff,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/tip%20the%20gaff.

Source: tip the gaff on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.