the jig is up

Word Rarity Rare

Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.10 in modern English

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phrase

Australian usage; New Zealand usage; American usage

"We knew then the jig was up, and it was no grin matter for us."
"When I first told 'em how the jig was up with us, that the British were going to have the land, without any fighting about it, I never see fellows so mad before in my life, unless it was Major Eaton at Washington when he sot out to flog Mr. Ingham."
"After I had returned home in the spring of 1893 from Washington, where I saw so many gray-haired men who had held high elective office begging for the crumbs from Cleveland's table, I gave my wife an account of what I observed, and told her that when the jig was up for me I would hasten back to Missouri to begin the practice of law once more and be a man among men."
"The universe works in strange ways: just when you think the jig is up, you get a second chance."

Derives from the obsolete Elizabethan-era slang use of the word jig, originally meaning a lively dance, which evolved to denote a practical joke or trick.

jig's up (alternative) one's jig is up (alternative) one's jig's up (alternative) the jig's up (alternative)

the game is up

gotcha sussed the game is up