See ambulance chaser on Wiktionary
{
"etymology_text": "The origins of this phrase date from 1897, from newspaper articles about attorneys seeking clients through targeted mail solicitation. “Ambulance chasing” was one of the descriptive phrases employed by the media for this activity. It later became a derogatory term for direct advertising.",
"forms": [
{
"form": "ambulance chasers",
"tags": [
"plural"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {},
"expansion": "ambulance chaser (plural ambulance chasers)",
"name": "en-noun"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "noun",
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
{
"_dis": "35 41 25",
"kind": "topical",
"langcode": "en",
"name": "Law",
"orig": "en:Law",
"parents": [
"Justice",
"Society",
"All topics",
"Fundamental"
],
"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "31 38 31",
"kind": "topical",
"langcode": "en",
"name": "People",
"orig": "en:People",
"parents": [
"Human",
"All topics",
"Fundamental"
],
"source": "w+disamb"
}
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1992, Aaron Sorkin, A Few Good Men, spoken by Lt. Cdr. JoAnne Galloway (Demi Moore):",
"text": "You know nothing about the law. You're a used-car salesman, Daniel. You're an ambulance chaser with a rank. You're nothing. Live with that.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2004 July 19, Richard Lacayo, “Court and Spark: Edwards' Legal Career”, in Time:",
"text": "Republicans have tried to cast him as a millionaire ambulance chaser, the kind of man who forces doctors and businesses to pay ever higher liability-insurance costs.",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"An unethical attorney who solicits business at the scenes of accidents or in hospitals, in exchange for a percentage of the damages that will be recovered in the case."
],
"id": "en-ambulance_chaser-en-noun-w9UUF~s~",
"links": [
[
"derogatory",
"derogatory"
],
[
"unethical",
"unethical"
],
[
"attorney",
"attorney"
],
[
"accidents",
"accidents"
],
[
"hospitals",
"hospitals"
],
[
"damages",
"damages"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(derogatory) An unethical attorney who solicits business at the scenes of accidents or in hospitals, in exchange for a percentage of the damages that will be recovered in the case."
],
"tags": [
"derogatory"
]
},
{
"categories": [
{
"_dis": "35 41 25",
"kind": "topical",
"langcode": "en",
"name": "Law",
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"Fundamental"
],
"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "31 38 31",
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"name": "People",
"orig": "en:People",
"parents": [
"Human",
"All topics",
"Fundamental"
],
"source": "w+disamb"
}
],
"glosses": [
"An attorney who engages in unethical behavior."
],
"id": "en-ambulance_chaser-en-noun-2W1rCpAZ",
"raw_glosses": [
"(by extension) An attorney who engages in unethical behavior."
],
"tags": [
"broadly"
]
},
{
"categories": [
{
"_dis": "35 19 46",
"kind": "other",
"name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
"parents": [
"Entries with incorrect language header",
"Entry maintenance"
],
"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "37 10 52",
"kind": "other",
"name": "Pages with 1 entry",
"parents": [],
"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "32 16 53",
"kind": "other",
"name": "Pages with entries",
"parents": [],
"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "35 41 25",
"kind": "topical",
"langcode": "en",
"name": "Law",
"orig": "en:Law",
"parents": [
"Justice",
"Society",
"All topics",
"Fundamental"
],
"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "31 38 31",
"kind": "topical",
"langcode": "en",
"name": "People",
"orig": "en:People",
"parents": [
"Human",
"All topics",
"Fundamental"
],
"source": "w+disamb"
}
],
"glosses": [
"An unethical funeral director or person who engages in the unlicensed sale of services to those who do not yet require them in an attempt to increase business."
],
"id": "en-ambulance_chaser-en-noun-fmfBnAvy",
"links": [
[
"derogatory",
"derogatory"
],
[
"unethical",
"unethical"
],
[
"funeral director",
"funeral director"
],
[
"engage",
"engage"
],
[
"unlicensed",
"unlicensed"
],
[
"sale",
"sale"
],
[
"require",
"require"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(derogatory) An unethical funeral director or person who engages in the unlicensed sale of services to those who do not yet require them in an attempt to increase business."
],
"related": [
{
"_dis1": "26 30 44",
"word": "ambulance chasing"
}
],
"tags": [
"derogatory"
]
}
],
"word": "ambulance chaser"
}
{
"categories": [
"English countable nouns",
"English entries with incorrect language header",
"English lemmas",
"English multiword terms",
"English nouns",
"Pages with 1 entry",
"Pages with entries",
"en:Law",
"en:People"
],
"etymology_text": "The origins of this phrase date from 1897, from newspaper articles about attorneys seeking clients through targeted mail solicitation. “Ambulance chasing” was one of the descriptive phrases employed by the media for this activity. It later became a derogatory term for direct advertising.",
"forms": [
{
"form": "ambulance chasers",
"tags": [
"plural"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {},
"expansion": "ambulance chaser (plural ambulance chasers)",
"name": "en-noun"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "noun",
"related": [
{
"word": "ambulance chasing"
}
],
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
"English derogatory terms",
"English terms with quotations"
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1992, Aaron Sorkin, A Few Good Men, spoken by Lt. Cdr. JoAnne Galloway (Demi Moore):",
"text": "You know nothing about the law. You're a used-car salesman, Daniel. You're an ambulance chaser with a rank. You're nothing. Live with that.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2004 July 19, Richard Lacayo, “Court and Spark: Edwards' Legal Career”, in Time:",
"text": "Republicans have tried to cast him as a millionaire ambulance chaser, the kind of man who forces doctors and businesses to pay ever higher liability-insurance costs.",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"An unethical attorney who solicits business at the scenes of accidents or in hospitals, in exchange for a percentage of the damages that will be recovered in the case."
],
"links": [
[
"derogatory",
"derogatory"
],
[
"unethical",
"unethical"
],
[
"attorney",
"attorney"
],
[
"accidents",
"accidents"
],
[
"hospitals",
"hospitals"
],
[
"damages",
"damages"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(derogatory) An unethical attorney who solicits business at the scenes of accidents or in hospitals, in exchange for a percentage of the damages that will be recovered in the case."
],
"tags": [
"derogatory"
]
},
{
"glosses": [
"An attorney who engages in unethical behavior."
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(by extension) An attorney who engages in unethical behavior."
],
"tags": [
"broadly"
]
},
{
"categories": [
"English derogatory terms"
],
"glosses": [
"An unethical funeral director or person who engages in the unlicensed sale of services to those who do not yet require them in an attempt to increase business."
],
"links": [
[
"derogatory",
"derogatory"
],
[
"unethical",
"unethical"
],
[
"funeral director",
"funeral director"
],
[
"engage",
"engage"
],
[
"unlicensed",
"unlicensed"
],
[
"sale",
"sale"
],
[
"require",
"require"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(derogatory) An unethical funeral director or person who engages in the unlicensed sale of services to those who do not yet require them in an attempt to increase business."
],
"tags": [
"derogatory"
]
}
],
"word": "ambulance chaser"
}
Download raw JSONL data for ambulance chaser meaning in All languages combined (2.8kB)
This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable All languages combined dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-12-21 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-12-04 using wiktextract (d8cb2f3 and 4e554ae). 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.