[Vocabulary] surprise witness

[Silverobama]

Hi,

What does "surprise witness" mean here?


The surprise witness was his trump card.


Thanks a lot

 

[5jj]

A witness that nobody expected to be produced.

 

[Raymott]

More specifically, a witness that the opposite team did not know was going to be called, and so did not have a chance to prepare for.
So, if the prosecution calls a surprise witness, the defense team did not know about it before hand. That's partly what makes it a 'trump card' in this situation.

 

[Silverobama]

But surprise couldn't be used as an adjective, right? And here "surprise witness" is a compound noun, isn't it?

 

[susiedqq]

No; it's an adjective. Other kinds of witnesses are:

hostile witness
expert witness

 

[Silverobama]

I wonder why I could only find out "surprise" work as noun and verb in dictionary?

 

[5jj]

I wonder why I could only find out "surprise" work as noun and verb in dictionary?

Because many people consider such constructions as 'surprise witness' to be a noun + noun construction. It's just a question of labelling, and not really important - unless you are particularly interested in labels.