off the cards—(sl.) work unofficially and informally, without disclosing one’s income:
- There are a lot of retired people now. Quite a few of them work, some of them may be working off the cards.
out of the cards—outside the range of probability:
- A future in professional sports is out of the cards for most of these people.
Cf.: on the cards—(U.S. also: in the cards) said of smth. very likely to happen:
- We have had some tight squeezes and it was on the cards that one day there really would be a problem.