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show one's true stripes

verb

Definitions

  1. To reveal one's real beliefs, sentiments, or character, especially through one's behavior.

    • Fidel Castro showed his true stripes again—as if they weren't indelible enough already—by letting his MiGs shoot down two of three unarmed Cuban-exile planes off Havana's coast on Saturday.
    • “Now they're showing their true stripes,” Iimmy Fioretos said. “The Turks wanted to invade all along. That malarkey about ‘protecting the Constitution’ was just a pretext.”
    • "My fear is that Bill Ford is showing his true stripes as just another short-sighted auto executive with no interest in the environment."

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sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA