Part of the three-verse saying about escalating a dispute, Proverbs 25:8–10.
Quick answer
Take it up with the person you have the problem with, and do not spend somebody else's confidence to win.
Read the whole unit
Do not rush to court, handle it directly, and know that exposure is irreversible. This verse is the constructive middle, and it is the only one of the three that tells you what to do rather than what not to.
Read the whole unit
Three verses on a single scenario: a dispute with a neighbor, and the temptation to escalate it publicly before thinking. The NKJV footnotes "court" at verse 8 as literally contend or bring a lawsuit, so this is litigation rather than argument.
The unit's logic runs forward in time, which is what makes it useful. Verse 8 asks what happens in the end if you lose. Verse 9 gives the alternative, which is to handle the matter with the person himself and to keep someone else's confidence out of it. Verse 10 names the cost of getting that wrong, and the cost is not the case. It is your reputation, permanently, because a disclosed secret cannot be recalled.
What the unit is really warning about is the moment a private grievance becomes a public performance. Once it is in the open, other people own it.
What this verse contributes
Two instructions that belong together. The first keeps the dispute between the two parties, which is where it can still be resolved. The second forbids the most tempting weapon available: סוֹד, a confidence, something you know because someone trusted you. The saying assumes you have one and could use it, and it assumes using it might even work. It rules it out anyway, because the case is not the only thing at stake, which the next verse makes explicit.
Related: Proverbs 11:13 · Proverbs 20:19 · Proverbs 17:9 · Matthew 18:15
New King James Version®, Copyright © 1982, Thomas Nelson. All rights reserved. Full copyright information. Scripture provided by API.Bible.
Go Deeper
If this verse has been used to put weight on you that it was never carrying, ask about it directly.