yellow card

American  

noun

yellow cards plural

1. Soccer. a yellow card shown by the referee to a player being cautioned for a violation.

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yellow card British  

noun

1. a card of a yellow colour displayed by a referee to indicate that a player has been officially cautioned for some offence

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verb

1. (tr) to caution (a player) officially for some offence

adjective

1. serving as a warning; intended to warn

   a yellow card system is in place

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• yellow cards
  plural

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

yellow card

And after a second yellow card, Fernandez became the sixth player in history—and the third from Argentina—to be sent off in the final.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 21, 2026

Fernández had been booked minutes earlier for dissent, and the second yellow card led to his expulsion, forcing Argentina to finish shorthanded.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 20, 2026

It was 40 minutes before Argentina defender Lisandro Martinez received the game's first yellow card for a foul on Mikel Oyarzabal - greeted with heavy sarcasm by many inside this vast bowl of a stadium.

From BBC ● Jul. 20, 2026

A yellow card is something the referee awards when you do something sort of bad, but not really bad.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 19, 2026

The pointy tip ended up in the yellow 200s zone, so she went ahead and pulled a yellow card.

From "Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library" by Chris Grabenstein