unmask one's batteries
English
Etymology
From the revealing of artillery previously concealed from the enemy’s line of sight, immediately before opening fire.
Verb
unmask one's batteries (third-person singular simple present unmasks one's batteries, present participle unmasking one's batteries, simple past and past participle unmasked one's batteries)
- (idiomatic, dated) To begin a decisive action, especially one that reveals one’s true strength or character.
- 1858, William Harrison Ainsworth, Mervyn Clitheroe, volume 2, page 278:
- “Your father is fond of surprises, as you must have seen,” Cuthbert rejoined. “He won’t unmask his batteries till all is ready for action.”
- 1877, J. H. Merle d’Aubigné, William L. R. Cates, transl., History of the Reformation in Europe in the Time of Calvin, volume 7, pages 198–99:
- The bishops, proud of this first victory, believed that a second would be easily won, and they unmasked their batteries.
- 1882 August 26, Public Opinion, volume 42, number 1,092, page 262:
- The Evénément[sic] remarks:—“The Egyptian Question is not a French or an Anglo-French, but a European question, and the spoliation just perpetrated by England, has enlightened Europe in time. It is not wise to unmask one’s batteries too soon.”
- 1956, Carlile Aylmer Macartney, October Fifteenth: A History of Modern Hungary, 1929–1945, volume 1, page 169:
- Meanwhile the Germans had shown that they themselves were not yet ready to unmask their batteries.
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- Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see unmask, battery.
See also
- cross the Rubicon
- show one's cards