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MrPernickety Posted 17 years ago
Vocabulary

Meaning of "speak out of school"

Hi,

Could you explain to me what "speak out of school" means ? I encountered the following two sentences, but I couldn't glean anything from the context.

Also, do you as a native speaker use it often in conversation?

I shouldn't speak out of school
Carlos, given his line of work, had learned never to speak out of school

Thanks in advance !
  

Top answer

I don't use it very much, no. in summary, it means to talk about things you don't shouldn't talk about. It may be you lack the authority to say anything officially, or it may be about things that might make an organization not look at good to members outside of the organization, or it may be an announcement that will be made officially by someone else later.

— BarbaraPA

  • I don't use it very much, no.
  • in summary, it means to talk about things you don't shouldn't talk about.
  • It may be you lack the authority to say anything officially, or it may be about things that might make an organization not look at good to members outside of the organization, or it may be an announcement that will be made officially by someone else later.
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4 Answers
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I don't use it very much, no.

in summary, it means to talk about things you don't shouldn't talk about.

It may be you lack the authority to say anything officially, or it may be about things that might make an organization not look at good to members outside of the organization, or it may be an announcement that will be made officially by someone else later.
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It can also mean doing something that's not necessarily in your purview, ie, an engineer telling an accountant that he's heard of a change in company policy affecting Accounting. I just used it today to inform a colleague that I'd passed on some information to a fellow in another department she later referenced in an email informing him of the same information. I sent her an apology saying "I ho
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In addition to saying something you do not have the expertise to say, or that you are not entitled to say given your position or relationship to the person or group to whom you're talking, it can also mean to give away a secret, or to broadcast something that's none of your business. More generally, "talking out of school" or "speaking out of school" is saying something you have no right to

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