put it past
verbEtymology From put past with placeholder it.
1
Idiomatic, In the negative To consider it not possible for (someone) (to do something).
- I wouldn't put it past him to spread malicious gossip about you.
- I wouldn't put it past her to steal from shops, but I would put it past her to steal from her own mother.
1 more example
- Since, as I mentioned, my arse is intact, I meditate first upon the pain in my balls. Jesus Harold Christ! I wonder if Monger's got some morphine kicking about. I wouldn't put it past him.2007, David Thewlis, The Late Hector Kipling, Pan Macmillan, →ISBN, page 304:
2
Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see put, it, past.
- He smashed the ball with his left foot and put it past the goalkeeper.