Careful Words

card (n.)

card (v.)

  A clere conscience is a sure carde.

John Lyly (Circa 1553-1601): Euphues, page 207.

He's a sure card.

John Dryden (1631-1701): The Spanish Friar. Act ii. Sc. 2.

On life's vast ocean diversely we sail,

Reason the card, but passion is the gale.

Alexander Pope (1688-1744): Essay on Man. Epistle ii. Line 107.

  How absolute the knave is! we must speak by the card, or equivocation will undo us.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Hamlet. Act v. Sc. 1.