"drive a nail where it will go" meaning in All languages combined

See drive a nail where it will go on Wiktionary

Verb [English]

Forms: drives a nail where it will go [present, singular, third-person], driving a nail where it will go [participle, present], drove a nail where it would go [past], driven a nail where it would go [participle, past]
Head templates: {{en-verb|drive<,,drove,driven> a nail where it will<will,will,would> go}} drive a nail where it will go (third-person singular simple present drives a nail where it will go, present participle driving a nail where it will go, simple past drove a nail where it would go, past participle driven a nail where it would go)
  1. (archaic) To take a pragmatic or expedient approach, rather than the ideal. Tags: archaic
    Sense id: en-drive_a_nail_where_it_will_go-en-verb-9TP4ZF4C Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, English terms with placeholder "it", Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries

Inflected forms

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "drives a nail where it will go",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "driving a nail where it will go",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "drove a nail where it would go",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "driven a nail where it would go",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "drive<,,drove,driven> a nail where it will<will,will,would> go"
      },
      "expansion": "drive a nail where it will go (third-person singular simple present drives a nail where it will go, present participle driving a nail where it will go, simple past drove a nail where it would go, past participle driven a nail where it would go)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English terms with placeholder \"it\"",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1857, Thomas Hughes, Tom Brown's School Days:",
          "text": "\"Well, I think East is right,\" said Arthur; \"I can't see but what it's right to do the best you can, though it mayn't be the best absolutely. Every man isn't born to be a martyr.\"\n\"Of course, of course,\" said East; \"but he's on one of his pet hobbies. — How often have I told you, Tom, that you must drive a nail where it'll go.\"",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To take a pragmatic or expedient approach, rather than the ideal."
      ],
      "id": "en-drive_a_nail_where_it_will_go-en-verb-9TP4ZF4C",
      "links": [
        [
          "pragmatic",
          "pragmatic"
        ],
        [
          "expedient",
          "expedient"
        ],
        [
          "approach",
          "approach"
        ],
        [
          "ideal",
          "ideal"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(archaic) To take a pragmatic or expedient approach, rather than the ideal."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "archaic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "drive a nail where it will go"
}
{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "drives a nail where it will go",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "driving a nail where it will go",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "drove a nail where it would go",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "driven a nail where it would go",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "drive<,,drove,driven> a nail where it will<will,will,would> go"
      },
      "expansion": "drive a nail where it will go (third-person singular simple present drives a nail where it will go, present participle driving a nail where it will go, simple past drove a nail where it would go, past participle driven a nail where it would go)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English terms with archaic senses",
        "English terms with placeholder \"it\"",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English verbs",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries",
        "Quotation templates to be cleaned"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1857, Thomas Hughes, Tom Brown's School Days:",
          "text": "\"Well, I think East is right,\" said Arthur; \"I can't see but what it's right to do the best you can, though it mayn't be the best absolutely. Every man isn't born to be a martyr.\"\n\"Of course, of course,\" said East; \"but he's on one of his pet hobbies. — How often have I told you, Tom, that you must drive a nail where it'll go.\"",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To take a pragmatic or expedient approach, rather than the ideal."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "pragmatic",
          "pragmatic"
        ],
        [
          "expedient",
          "expedient"
        ],
        [
          "approach",
          "approach"
        ],
        [
          "ideal",
          "ideal"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(archaic) To take a pragmatic or expedient approach, rather than the ideal."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "archaic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "drive a nail where it will go"
}

Download raw JSONL data for drive a nail where it will go meaning in All languages combined (1.8kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable All languages combined dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-02-03 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-01-20 using wiktextract (05fdf6b and 9dbd323). 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.