See damp squib on Wiktionary
{
"forms": [
{
"form": "damp squibs",
"tags": [
"plural"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {},
"expansion": "damp squib (plural damp squibs)",
"name": "en-noun"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "noun",
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
{
"_dis": "46 54",
"kind": "other",
"name": "Pages with 1 entry",
"parents": [],
"source": "w+disamb"
}
],
"glosses": [
"A firework that has been wet and therefore fails to go off correctly."
],
"id": "en-damp_squib-en-noun-~y8zKVHB",
"links": [
[
"firework",
"firework"
],
[
"go off",
"go off"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(literally) A firework that has been wet and therefore fails to go off correctly."
],
"synonyms": [
{
"_dis1": "59 41",
"word": "wet firecracker"
},
{
"_dis1": "59 41",
"word": "dud"
}
],
"tags": [
"literally"
],
"translations": [
{
"_dis1": "91 9",
"code": "da",
"lang": "Danish",
"sense": "firework that fails to go off, due to wetting",
"word": "fuser"
},
{
"_dis1": "91 9",
"code": "nl",
"lang": "Dutch",
"sense": "firework that fails to go off, due to wetting",
"word": "sisser"
},
{
"_dis1": "91 9",
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"sense": "firework that fails to go off, due to wetting",
"word": "suutari"
},
{
"_dis1": "91 9",
"code": "fr",
"lang": "French",
"sense": "firework that fails to go off, due to wetting",
"word": "pétard mouillé"
},
{
"_dis1": "91 9",
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "firework that fails to go off, due to wetting",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "Blindgänger"
},
{
"_dis1": "91 9",
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "firework that fails to go off, due to wetting",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "Versager"
},
{
"_dis1": "91 9",
"code": "ga",
"lang": "Irish",
"sense": "firework that fails to go off, due to wetting",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "urchar iomrallach"
}
]
},
{
"categories": [
{
"_dis": "40 60",
"kind": "other",
"name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
"parents": [
"Entries with incorrect language header",
"Entry maintenance"
],
"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "25 75",
"kind": "other",
"name": "Entries with translation boxes",
"parents": [],
"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "46 54",
"kind": "other",
"name": "Pages with 1 entry",
"parents": [],
"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "41 59",
"kind": "other",
"name": "Pages with entries",
"parents": [],
"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "30 70",
"kind": "other",
"name": "Terms with Danish translations",
"parents": [],
"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "32 68",
"kind": "other",
"name": "Terms with Dutch translations",
"parents": [],
"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "28 72",
"kind": "other",
"name": "Terms with Finnish translations",
"parents": [],
"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "28 72",
"kind": "other",
"name": "Terms with French translations",
"parents": [],
"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "32 68",
"kind": "other",
"name": "Terms with German translations",
"parents": [],
"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "32 68",
"kind": "other",
"name": "Terms with Irish translations",
"parents": [],
"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "33 67",
"kind": "other",
"name": "Terms with Polish translations",
"parents": [],
"source": "w+disamb"
}
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1858 May 29, The Launceston Examiner, Tasmania, page 6, column 2:",
"text": "The anonymous oracle, the author of this pamphlet, is an example of entertaining dullness. He has manufactured a very damp squib; he is a serious man in motley; and practical ideas occasionally drop in among his fantastic vaticinations.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "1999 June 30, Fiachra Gibbons, quoting John Calder, “Arts and science ‘damp squib’”, in The Guardian:",
"text": "It sounds very token, another damp squib which will probably end up benefiting more bureaucrats than artists or scientists.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2012 December 29, Paul Doyle, “Arsenal's Theo Walcott hits hat-trick in thrilling victory over Newcastle”, in The Guardian:",
"text": "Arsène Wenger confessed: \"The result was not an accurate indication of the match.\" Certainly, at half-time it seemed unlikely that Arsenal would catch fire so spectacularly because the first half was a damp squib of a display from Wenger's team, as Newcastle initially showed no ill-effects from their Old Trafford ordeal.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2012 December 30, Mark O'Connell, “Both Flesh and Not by David Foster Wallace – review”, in The Observer, →ISSN:",
"text": "A third collection of David Foster Wallace's essays contains genius and damp squibs[.]",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2013, Alistair Moffat, Susan Mansfield, Alexander Smith, The Great Tapestry of Scotland: The Making of a Masterpiece:",
"text": "That whole campaign was a damp squib, they cranked it up as a real possibility that Scotland might win, and when we actually got there it didn't happen like that, and everybody came home quite early with their tails between their legs.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2017 July 17, Yasmeen Serhan, quoting Guy Verhofstadt, “One Issue That Could Break the Brexit Talks”, in The Atlantic:",
"text": "Guy Verhofstadt, the European Parliament’s Brexit coordinator, took the criticism one step further, dubbing the U.K. proposal a “damp squib” that reduces Europeans to “the status of ‘third-country nationals’ in the U.K., with fewer rights than British citizens are offered throughout the EU.”",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2024 April 16, Arwa Mahdawi, “‘How did Kamala Harris go from being a rising star to a damp squib?”, in The Guardian:",
"text": "How did Kamala Harris go from being a rising star to a damp squib? [title]",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"Anything that does not work properly, or fails to come up to expectations; a dud."
],
"id": "en-damp_squib-en-noun-uqibqFlU",
"links": [
[
"work",
"work"
],
[
"properly",
"properly"
],
[
"fails",
"fails"
],
[
"expectation",
"expectation"
],
[
"dud",
"dud"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(idiomatic, by extension) Anything that does not work properly, or fails to come up to expectations; a dud."
],
"tags": [
"broadly",
"idiomatic"
],
"translations": [
{
"_dis1": "0 100",
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"sense": "anything that doesn’t work properly",
"word": "suutari"
},
{
"_dis1": "0 100",
"code": "fr",
"lang": "French",
"sense": "anything that doesn’t work properly",
"word": "pétard mouillé"
},
{
"_dis1": "0 100",
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "anything that doesn’t work properly",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "Schuss in den Ofen"
},
{
"_dis1": "0 100",
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "anything that doesn’t work properly",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "Reinfall"
},
{
"_dis1": "0 100",
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "anything that doesn’t work properly",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "Schlag ins Wasser"
},
{
"_dis1": "0 100",
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "anything that doesn’t work properly",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "Rohrkrepierer"
},
{
"_dis1": "0 100",
"code": "pl",
"lang": "Polish",
"sense": "anything that doesn’t work properly",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "niewypał"
}
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"audio": "en-au-damp squib.ogg",
"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/9/9f/En-au-damp_squib.ogg/En-au-damp_squib.ogg.mp3",
"ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9f/En-au-damp_squib.ogg"
}
],
"word": "damp squib"
}
{
"categories": [
"English countable nouns",
"English entries with incorrect language header",
"English lemmas",
"English multiword terms",
"English nouns",
"Entries with translation boxes",
"Pages with 1 entry",
"Pages with entries",
"Terms with Danish translations",
"Terms with Dutch translations",
"Terms with Finnish translations",
"Terms with French translations",
"Terms with German translations",
"Terms with Irish translations",
"Terms with Polish translations"
],
"forms": [
{
"form": "damp squibs",
"tags": [
"plural"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {},
"expansion": "damp squib (plural damp squibs)",
"name": "en-noun"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "noun",
"senses": [
{
"glosses": [
"A firework that has been wet and therefore fails to go off correctly."
],
"links": [
[
"firework",
"firework"
],
[
"go off",
"go off"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(literally) A firework that has been wet and therefore fails to go off correctly."
],
"tags": [
"literally"
]
},
{
"categories": [
"English idioms",
"English terms with quotations"
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1858 May 29, The Launceston Examiner, Tasmania, page 6, column 2:",
"text": "The anonymous oracle, the author of this pamphlet, is an example of entertaining dullness. He has manufactured a very damp squib; he is a serious man in motley; and practical ideas occasionally drop in among his fantastic vaticinations.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "1999 June 30, Fiachra Gibbons, quoting John Calder, “Arts and science ‘damp squib’”, in The Guardian:",
"text": "It sounds very token, another damp squib which will probably end up benefiting more bureaucrats than artists or scientists.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2012 December 29, Paul Doyle, “Arsenal's Theo Walcott hits hat-trick in thrilling victory over Newcastle”, in The Guardian:",
"text": "Arsène Wenger confessed: \"The result was not an accurate indication of the match.\" Certainly, at half-time it seemed unlikely that Arsenal would catch fire so spectacularly because the first half was a damp squib of a display from Wenger's team, as Newcastle initially showed no ill-effects from their Old Trafford ordeal.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2012 December 30, Mark O'Connell, “Both Flesh and Not by David Foster Wallace – review”, in The Observer, →ISSN:",
"text": "A third collection of David Foster Wallace's essays contains genius and damp squibs[.]",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2013, Alistair Moffat, Susan Mansfield, Alexander Smith, The Great Tapestry of Scotland: The Making of a Masterpiece:",
"text": "That whole campaign was a damp squib, they cranked it up as a real possibility that Scotland might win, and when we actually got there it didn't happen like that, and everybody came home quite early with their tails between their legs.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2017 July 17, Yasmeen Serhan, quoting Guy Verhofstadt, “One Issue That Could Break the Brexit Talks”, in The Atlantic:",
"text": "Guy Verhofstadt, the European Parliament’s Brexit coordinator, took the criticism one step further, dubbing the U.K. proposal a “damp squib” that reduces Europeans to “the status of ‘third-country nationals’ in the U.K., with fewer rights than British citizens are offered throughout the EU.”",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2024 April 16, Arwa Mahdawi, “‘How did Kamala Harris go from being a rising star to a damp squib?”, in The Guardian:",
"text": "How did Kamala Harris go from being a rising star to a damp squib? [title]",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"Anything that does not work properly, or fails to come up to expectations; a dud."
],
"links": [
[
"work",
"work"
],
[
"properly",
"properly"
],
[
"fails",
"fails"
],
[
"expectation",
"expectation"
],
[
"dud",
"dud"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(idiomatic, by extension) Anything that does not work properly, or fails to come up to expectations; a dud."
],
"tags": [
"broadly",
"idiomatic"
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"audio": "en-au-damp squib.ogg",
"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/9/9f/En-au-damp_squib.ogg/En-au-damp_squib.ogg.mp3",
"ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9f/En-au-damp_squib.ogg"
}
],
"synonyms": [
{
"word": "wet firecracker"
},
{
"word": "dud"
}
],
"translations": [
{
"code": "da",
"lang": "Danish",
"sense": "firework that fails to go off, due to wetting",
"word": "fuser"
},
{
"code": "nl",
"lang": "Dutch",
"sense": "firework that fails to go off, due to wetting",
"word": "sisser"
},
{
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"sense": "firework that fails to go off, due to wetting",
"word": "suutari"
},
{
"code": "fr",
"lang": "French",
"sense": "firework that fails to go off, due to wetting",
"word": "pétard mouillé"
},
{
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "firework that fails to go off, due to wetting",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "Blindgänger"
},
{
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "firework that fails to go off, due to wetting",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "Versager"
},
{
"code": "ga",
"lang": "Irish",
"sense": "firework that fails to go off, due to wetting",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "urchar iomrallach"
},
{
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"sense": "anything that doesn’t work properly",
"word": "suutari"
},
{
"code": "fr",
"lang": "French",
"sense": "anything that doesn’t work properly",
"word": "pétard mouillé"
},
{
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "anything that doesn’t work properly",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "Schuss in den Ofen"
},
{
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "anything that doesn’t work properly",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "Reinfall"
},
{
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "anything that doesn’t work properly",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "Schlag ins Wasser"
},
{
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "anything that doesn’t work properly",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "Rohrkrepierer"
},
{
"code": "pl",
"lang": "Polish",
"sense": "anything that doesn’t work properly",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "niewypał"
}
],
"word": "damp squib"
}
Download raw JSONL data for damp squib meaning in All languages combined (5.9kB)
This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable All languages combined dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-12-15 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-12-04 using wiktextract (8a39820 and 4401a4c). 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.