See catch flies on Wiktionary
{
"forms": [
{
"form": "catches flies",
"tags": [
"present",
"singular",
"third-person"
]
},
{
"form": "catching flies",
"tags": [
"participle",
"present"
]
},
{
"form": "caught flies",
"tags": [
"participle",
"past"
]
},
{
"form": "caught flies",
"tags": [
"past"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "catch<,,caught> flies"
},
"expansion": "catch flies (third-person singular simple present catches flies, present participle catching flies, simple past and past participle caught flies)",
"name": "en-verb"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "verb",
"senses": [
{
"categories": [],
"examples": [
{
"text": "You'd better close your mouth; are you trying to catch flies?",
"type": "example"
}
],
"glosses": [
"To have one's mouth wide open for a prolonged period."
],
"id": "en-catch_flies-en-verb-HwWiiDiq",
"links": [
[
"mouth",
"mouth"
],
[
"wide open",
"wide open"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(idiomatic) To have one's mouth wide open for a prolonged period."
],
"tags": [
"idiomatic"
]
},
{
"categories": [
{
"kind": "topical",
"langcode": "en",
"name": "Theater",
"orig": "en:Theater",
"parents": [
"Art",
"Entertainment",
"Culture",
"Society",
"All topics",
"Fundamental"
],
"source": "w"
}
],
"glosses": [
"Of an actor: to distract the audience by moving or gesturing when the focus should be elsewhere."
],
"id": "en-catch_flies-en-verb-XAD9MiZF",
"links": [
[
"theater",
"theater"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(theater, informal) Of an actor: to distract the audience by moving or gesturing when the focus should be elsewhere."
],
"tags": [
"informal"
],
"topics": [
"entertainment",
"lifestyle",
"theater"
]
},
{
"categories": [
{
"_dis": "26 29 45",
"kind": "other",
"name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
"parents": [
"Entries with incorrect language header",
"Entry maintenance"
],
"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "26 26 48",
"kind": "other",
"name": "Pages with 1 entry",
"parents": [],
"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "12 15 74",
"kind": "other",
"name": "Pages with entries",
"parents": [],
"source": "w+disamb"
}
],
"glosses": [
"Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see catch, fly."
],
"id": "en-catch_flies-en-verb-nhu7hRk7",
"links": [
[
"catch",
"catch#English"
],
[
"fly",
"fly#English"
]
],
"related": [
{
"_dis1": "7 14 79",
"word": "flytrap"
},
{
"_dis1": "7 14 79",
"word": "you can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar"
}
]
}
],
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"word": "catch flies"
}
{
"categories": [
"English entries with incorrect language header",
"English lemmas",
"English multiword terms",
"English verbs",
"Pages with 1 entry",
"Pages with entries"
],
"forms": [
{
"form": "catches flies",
"tags": [
"present",
"singular",
"third-person"
]
},
{
"form": "catching flies",
"tags": [
"participle",
"present"
]
},
{
"form": "caught flies",
"tags": [
"participle",
"past"
]
},
{
"form": "caught flies",
"tags": [
"past"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "catch<,,caught> flies"
},
"expansion": "catch flies (third-person singular simple present catches flies, present participle catching flies, simple past and past participle caught flies)",
"name": "en-verb"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "verb",
"related": [
{
"word": "flytrap"
},
{
"word": "you can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar"
}
],
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
"English idioms",
"English terms with usage examples"
],
"examples": [
{
"text": "You'd better close your mouth; are you trying to catch flies?",
"type": "example"
}
],
"glosses": [
"To have one's mouth wide open for a prolonged period."
],
"links": [
[
"mouth",
"mouth"
],
[
"wide open",
"wide open"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(idiomatic) To have one's mouth wide open for a prolonged period."
],
"tags": [
"idiomatic"
]
},
{
"categories": [
"English informal terms",
"en:Theater"
],
"glosses": [
"Of an actor: to distract the audience by moving or gesturing when the focus should be elsewhere."
],
"links": [
[
"theater",
"theater"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(theater, informal) Of an actor: to distract the audience by moving or gesturing when the focus should be elsewhere."
],
"tags": [
"informal"
],
"topics": [
"entertainment",
"lifestyle",
"theater"
]
},
{
"glosses": [
"Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see catch, fly."
],
"links": [
[
"catch",
"catch#English"
],
[
"fly",
"fly#English"
]
]
}
],
"sounds": [
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"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/9/9c/En-au-catch_flies.ogg/En-au-catch_flies.ogg.mp3",
"ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9c/En-au-catch_flies.ogg"
}
],
"word": "catch flies"
}
Download raw JSONL data for catch flies 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 2025-03-23 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-03-21 using wiktextract (fef8596 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.