See blue streak on Wiktionary
{
"etymology_text": "From the afterimage of a stroke of lightning, which looks like a blue streak across the sky.",
"head_templates": [
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},
"expansion": "blue streak",
"name": "en-noun"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "noun",
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "American English",
"parents": [],
"source": "w"
},
{
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"name": "English terms with collocations",
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"_dis": "99 1",
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"source": "w+disamb"
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{
"_dis": "98 2",
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],
"examples": [
{
"text": "to talk a blue streak",
"type": "example"
},
{
"ref": "1847, The Knickerbocker, page 178:",
"text": "interspersing his vehement comments with a ‘blue streak’ of oaths",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "1895 September, The Century Magazine, page 676:",
"text": "He calmly lied to me a blue streak, and he knew that I knew he was lying",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "1951, Tennessee Williams, Oscar Saul, A Streetcar Named Desire, spoken by Blanche (Vivien Leigh):",
"text": "This old maid, she had a parrot that cursed a blue streak and knew more vulgar expressions than Mr. Kowalski.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2007, Sue Owens Wright, 150 Activities For Bored Dogs:",
"text": "If you leave your dog alone in your backyard for hours at a time, he may be barking a blue streak, too.",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"A great deal of fast talking, cursing, lying, or similar."
],
"id": "en-blue_streak-en-noun-Tx~Q2qFO",
"raw_glosses": [
"(informal, originally US) A great deal of fast talking, cursing, lying, or similar."
],
"tags": [
"informal"
]
},
{
"categories": [],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1830 May 14, Kentuckian, page 2/5:",
"text": "To pass[…] with such rapidity as not even to leave a ‘blue streak’ behind him",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "1867, James Howard, A Trip to America: Two Lectures, page 35:",
"text": "An American engineer, who had been in England, described the Express train from Liverpool to London as running a \"blue streak,\" by which he meant going like lightning.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "1907, Mark Twain, A Horse's Tale:",
"text": "Now then, watch me leave a blue streak behind!",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "1977, Dick D'Easum, Sawtooth Tales, page 273:",
"text": "Running like a blue streak from your old mammy.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2006, Mignon C. Reynolds, Life as Bonkers, page 13:",
"text": "She was wild and crazy, and she could run a blue streak.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2014, Leroy Stover, Birmingham First Black in Blue:",
"text": "He (the suspect) should know better than to run from my partner Leroy, for he's like a blue streak.",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"A trace left by something that is too quick to see."
],
"id": "en-blue_streak-en-noun-kXBfrdLs"
}
],
"word": "blue streak"
}
{
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"English countable nouns",
"English entries with incorrect language header",
"English lemmas",
"English multiword terms",
"English nouns",
"English nouns with unknown or uncertain plurals",
"Pages with 1 entry",
"Pages with entries"
],
"etymology_text": "From the afterimage of a stroke of lightning, which looks like a blue streak across the sky.",
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "?"
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"expansion": "blue streak",
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],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "noun",
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
"American English",
"English informal terms",
"English terms with collocations",
"English terms with quotations"
],
"examples": [
{
"text": "to talk a blue streak",
"type": "example"
},
{
"ref": "1847, The Knickerbocker, page 178:",
"text": "interspersing his vehement comments with a ‘blue streak’ of oaths",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "1895 September, The Century Magazine, page 676:",
"text": "He calmly lied to me a blue streak, and he knew that I knew he was lying",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "1951, Tennessee Williams, Oscar Saul, A Streetcar Named Desire, spoken by Blanche (Vivien Leigh):",
"text": "This old maid, she had a parrot that cursed a blue streak and knew more vulgar expressions than Mr. Kowalski.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2007, Sue Owens Wright, 150 Activities For Bored Dogs:",
"text": "If you leave your dog alone in your backyard for hours at a time, he may be barking a blue streak, too.",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"A great deal of fast talking, cursing, lying, or similar."
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(informal, originally US) A great deal of fast talking, cursing, lying, or similar."
],
"tags": [
"informal"
]
},
{
"categories": [
"English terms with quotations"
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1830 May 14, Kentuckian, page 2/5:",
"text": "To pass[…] with such rapidity as not even to leave a ‘blue streak’ behind him",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "1867, James Howard, A Trip to America: Two Lectures, page 35:",
"text": "An American engineer, who had been in England, described the Express train from Liverpool to London as running a \"blue streak,\" by which he meant going like lightning.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "1907, Mark Twain, A Horse's Tale:",
"text": "Now then, watch me leave a blue streak behind!",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "1977, Dick D'Easum, Sawtooth Tales, page 273:",
"text": "Running like a blue streak from your old mammy.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2006, Mignon C. Reynolds, Life as Bonkers, page 13:",
"text": "She was wild and crazy, and she could run a blue streak.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2014, Leroy Stover, Birmingham First Black in Blue:",
"text": "He (the suspect) should know better than to run from my partner Leroy, for he's like a blue streak.",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"A trace left by something that is too quick to see."
]
}
],
"word": "blue streak"
}
Download raw JSONL data for blue streak 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 2025-01-13 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-01-01 using wiktextract (4ba5975 and 4ed51a5). 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.
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