"sure-fire" meaning in All languages combined

See sure-fire on Wiktionary

Adjective [English]

Forms: more sure-fire [comparative], most sure-fire [superlative]
Etymology: From sure + fire, originally used to denote the efficacy of firearms (rifles) to fire. Etymology templates: {{af|en|sure|fire}} sure + fire Head templates: {{en-adj}} sure-fire (comparative more sure-fire, superlative most sure-fire)
  1. Guaranteed to work or happen. Synonyms: surefire Related terms: foolproof Translations (Translations): seguro (Spanish), infalible (Spanish)

Alternative forms

{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "sure",
        "3": "fire"
      },
      "expansion": "sure + fire",
      "name": "af"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From sure + fire, originally used to denote the efficacy of firearms (rifles) to fire.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "more sure-fire",
      "tags": [
        "comparative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "most sure-fire",
      "tags": [
        "superlative"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "sure-fire (comparative more sure-fire, superlative most sure-fire)",
      "name": "en-adj"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "adj",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
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            "Entry maintenance"
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          "source": "w"
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        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Spanish translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "That hat should be a sure-fire way to spot him in a crowd.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2005, Cory Doctorow, Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town:",
          "text": "[…] just as he knew that showing up for lunch with a brown bag full of dried squirrel jerky and mushrooms and lemongrass was a surefire way to end up social roadkill in the high school hierarchy, […]",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2014 April 29, Andrew Clements, “ENO's 14/15 season: some sure-fire winners, while Coliseum plans will strengthen the company”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:",
          "text": "There certainly looks to be a whole clutch of sure-fire winners among the 11 promised new productions.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Guaranteed to work or happen."
      ],
      "id": "en-sure-fire-en-adj-yuefAXuz",
      "links": [
        [
          "Guaranteed",
          "guaranteed"
        ],
        [
          "work",
          "work"
        ],
        [
          "happen",
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        ]
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "word": "foolproof"
        }
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "surefire"
        }
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "code": "es",
          "lang": "Spanish",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "word": "seguro"
        },
        {
          "code": "es",
          "lang": "Spanish",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "word": "infalible"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "sure-fire"
}
{
  "etymology_templates": [
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        "2": "sure",
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      },
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      "name": "af"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From sure + fire, originally used to denote the efficacy of firearms (rifles) to fire.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "more sure-fire",
      "tags": [
        "comparative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "most sure-fire",
      "tags": [
        "superlative"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
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      "args": {},
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  ],
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  "pos": "adj",
  "related": [
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      "word": "foolproof"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
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        "English compound terms",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English terms with usage examples",
        "Entries with translation boxes",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries",
        "Terms with Spanish translations",
        "Translation table header lacks gloss"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "That hat should be a sure-fire way to spot him in a crowd.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2005, Cory Doctorow, Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town:",
          "text": "[…] just as he knew that showing up for lunch with a brown bag full of dried squirrel jerky and mushrooms and lemongrass was a surefire way to end up social roadkill in the high school hierarchy, […]",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2014 April 29, Andrew Clements, “ENO's 14/15 season: some sure-fire winners, while Coliseum plans will strengthen the company”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:",
          "text": "There certainly looks to be a whole clutch of sure-fire winners among the 11 promised new productions.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Guaranteed to work or happen."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "Guaranteed",
          "guaranteed"
        ],
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          "work",
          "work"
        ],
        [
          "happen",
          "happen"
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "surefire"
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "es",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "word": "seguro"
    },
    {
      "code": "es",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "word": "infalible"
    }
  ],
  "word": "sure-fire"
}

Download raw JSONL data for sure-fire meaning in All languages combined (2.0kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable All languages combined dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-02-17 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-02-02 using wiktextract (ca09fec and c40eb85). 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.