See leave a lot to be desired on Wiktionary
{
"forms": [
{
"form": "leaves a lot to be desired",
"tags": [
"present",
"singular",
"third-person"
]
},
{
"form": "leaving a lot to be desired",
"tags": [
"participle",
"present"
]
},
{
"form": "left a lot to be desired",
"tags": [
"participle",
"past"
]
},
{
"form": "left a lot to be desired",
"tags": [
"past"
]
},
{
"form": "leave much to be desired",
"tags": [
"alternative"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "leave<,,left> a lot to be desired"
},
"expansion": "leave a lot to be desired (third-person singular simple present leaves a lot to be desired, present participle leaving a lot to be desired, simple past and past participle left a lot to be desired)",
"name": "en-verb"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "verb",
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
"parents": [
"Entries with incorrect language header",
"Entry maintenance"
],
"source": "w"
},
{
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},
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"name": "Pages with 1 entry",
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},
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "Pages with entries",
"parents": [],
"source": "w"
},
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "Terms with Czech translations",
"parents": [],
"source": "w"
},
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "Terms with Dutch translations",
"parents": [],
"source": "w"
},
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "Terms with Finnish translations",
"parents": [],
"source": "w"
},
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "Terms with French translations",
"parents": [],
"source": "w"
},
{
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"name": "Terms with German translations",
"parents": [],
"source": "w"
},
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "Terms with Polish translations",
"parents": [],
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},
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "Terms with Portuguese translations",
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},
{
"kind": "other",
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"parents": [],
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},
{
"kind": "other",
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"parents": [],
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}
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1944 November and December, “Conversion of L.N.E.R. \"B16\" Class 4-6-0 Locomotives”, in Railway Magazine, page 349:",
"text": "The three cylinders of these engines are 18½ in. dia. by 26 in. stroke; and as the three piston valves were all between the frames, it resulted in the monoblock casting being weak, so far as the centre cylinder was concerned, with the result that the life of these castings left a good deal to be desired.",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"To be unsatisfactory; to fail to meet minimal standards of acceptability."
],
"id": "en-leave_a_lot_to_be_desired-en-verb-mvsR8Iff",
"links": [
[
"unsatisfactory",
"unsatisfactory"
],
[
"fail",
"fail"
],
[
"meet",
"meet"
],
[
"minimal",
"minimal"
],
[
"standard",
"standard"
],
[
"acceptability",
"acceptability"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(intransitive) To be unsatisfactory; to fail to meet minimal standards of acceptability."
],
"tags": [
"intransitive"
],
"translations": [
{
"code": "cs",
"lang": "Czech",
"sense": "Translations",
"word": "mít k dokonalosti daleko"
},
{
"code": "nl",
"lang": "Dutch",
"sense": "Translations",
"word": "te wensen overlaten"
},
{
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"sense": "Translations",
"word": "jättää toivomisen varaa"
},
{
"code": "fr",
"lang": "French",
"sense": "Translations",
"word": "laisser à désirer"
},
{
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "Translations",
"word": "viel zu wünschen übrig lassen"
},
{
"code": "pl",
"lang": "Polish",
"sense": "Translations",
"tags": [
"imperfective"
],
"word": "pozostawiać wiele do życzenia"
},
{
"code": "pl",
"lang": "Polish",
"sense": "Translations",
"tags": [
"perfective"
],
"word": "pozostawić wiele do życzenia"
},
{
"code": "pt",
"lang": "Portuguese",
"sense": "Translations",
"word": "deixar a desejar"
},
{
"code": "ru",
"lang": "Russian",
"roman": "ostavljátʹ želátʹ lúčševo",
"sense": "Translations",
"tags": [
"imperfective"
],
"word": "оставля́ть жела́ть лу́чшего"
},
{
"code": "es",
"lang": "Spanish",
"sense": "Translations",
"word": "dejar mucho que desear"
}
]
}
],
"word": "leave a lot to be desired"
}
{
"forms": [
{
"form": "leaves a lot to be desired",
"tags": [
"present",
"singular",
"third-person"
]
},
{
"form": "leaving a lot to be desired",
"tags": [
"participle",
"present"
]
},
{
"form": "left a lot to be desired",
"tags": [
"participle",
"past"
]
},
{
"form": "left a lot to be desired",
"tags": [
"past"
]
},
{
"form": "leave much to be desired",
"tags": [
"alternative"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "leave<,,left> a lot to be desired"
},
"expansion": "leave a lot to be desired (third-person singular simple present leaves a lot to be desired, present participle leaving a lot to be desired, simple past and past participle left a lot to be desired)",
"name": "en-verb"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "verb",
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{
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"English lemmas",
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"English terms with quotations",
"English verbs",
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"Pages with 1 entry",
"Pages with entries",
"Terms with Czech translations",
"Terms with Dutch translations",
"Terms with Finnish translations",
"Terms with French translations",
"Terms with German translations",
"Terms with Polish translations",
"Terms with Portuguese translations",
"Terms with Russian translations",
"Terms with Spanish translations",
"Translation table header lacks gloss"
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1944 November and December, “Conversion of L.N.E.R. \"B16\" Class 4-6-0 Locomotives”, in Railway Magazine, page 349:",
"text": "The three cylinders of these engines are 18½ in. dia. by 26 in. stroke; and as the three piston valves were all between the frames, it resulted in the monoblock casting being weak, so far as the centre cylinder was concerned, with the result that the life of these castings left a good deal to be desired.",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"To be unsatisfactory; to fail to meet minimal standards of acceptability."
],
"links": [
[
"unsatisfactory",
"unsatisfactory"
],
[
"fail",
"fail"
],
[
"meet",
"meet"
],
[
"minimal",
"minimal"
],
[
"standard",
"standard"
],
[
"acceptability",
"acceptability"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(intransitive) To be unsatisfactory; to fail to meet minimal standards of acceptability."
],
"tags": [
"intransitive"
]
}
],
"translations": [
{
"code": "cs",
"lang": "Czech",
"sense": "Translations",
"word": "mít k dokonalosti daleko"
},
{
"code": "nl",
"lang": "Dutch",
"sense": "Translations",
"word": "te wensen overlaten"
},
{
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"sense": "Translations",
"word": "jättää toivomisen varaa"
},
{
"code": "fr",
"lang": "French",
"sense": "Translations",
"word": "laisser à désirer"
},
{
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "Translations",
"word": "viel zu wünschen übrig lassen"
},
{
"code": "pl",
"lang": "Polish",
"sense": "Translations",
"tags": [
"imperfective"
],
"word": "pozostawiać wiele do życzenia"
},
{
"code": "pl",
"lang": "Polish",
"sense": "Translations",
"tags": [
"perfective"
],
"word": "pozostawić wiele do życzenia"
},
{
"code": "pt",
"lang": "Portuguese",
"sense": "Translations",
"word": "deixar a desejar"
},
{
"code": "ru",
"lang": "Russian",
"roman": "ostavljátʹ želátʹ lúčševo",
"sense": "Translations",
"tags": [
"imperfective"
],
"word": "оставля́ть жела́ть лу́чшего"
},
{
"code": "es",
"lang": "Spanish",
"sense": "Translations",
"word": "dejar mucho que desear"
}
],
"word": "leave a lot to be desired"
}
Download raw JSONL data for leave a lot to be desired meaning in All languages combined (3.3kB)
This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable All languages combined dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-03-06 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-03-02 using wiktextract (b81b832 and 633533e). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.
If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.