See file off the serial numbers on Wiktionary
{
"etymology_text": "From the practice of filing the serial numbers off of firearms in order to make their origin and ownership difficult to trace.",
"forms": [
{
"form": "files off the serial numbers",
"tags": [
"present",
"singular",
"third-person"
]
},
{
"form": "filing off the serial numbers",
"tags": [
"participle",
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]
},
{
"form": "filed off the serial numbers",
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]
},
{
"form": "filed off the serial numbers",
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"past"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
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},
"expansion": "file off the serial numbers (third-person singular simple present files off the serial numbers, present participle filing off the serial numbers, simple past and past participle filed off the serial numbers)",
"name": "en-verb"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "verb",
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
"parents": [],
"source": "w"
},
{
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{
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},
{
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"langcode": "en",
"name": "Fan fiction",
"orig": "en:Fan fiction",
"parents": [],
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}
],
"examples": [
{
"bold_text_offsets": [
[
140,
169
]
],
"ref": "1998 March 6, Julie Lim, “Help!”, in rec.arts.sf.composition (Usenet):",
"text": "For a while now, I've been pottering away at a Star Wars fanfic novella ([URL redacted], if you must know). I've received a few pokes about filing off the serial numbers and trying to sell it as an independent work.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"bold_text_offsets": [
[
177,
206
]
],
"ref": "2002 January 15, David Thornley, “Re: harry potter”, in rec.games.int-fiction (Usenet):",
"text": "I've heard a rumor that Bujold started the Barrayar series as Star Trek fanfic, and there's enough resemblance there to make that seem very plausible to me. Suppose she did. By filing off the serial numbers, she was able to make the universe her own, to change as she needed to.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"bold_text_offsets": [
[
44,
72
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],
"ref": "2012 April 1, Elizabeth Tai, “Quantity over quality?”, in The Star, Malaysia:",
"text": "I say “may have” because [E. L.] James has “filed off the serial numbers” of her fanfic.",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"To remove the copyrighted elements from an existing work of fan fiction so that it may be commercially published as original fiction."
],
"hypernyms": [
{
"word": "pull-to-publish"
}
],
"id": "en-file_off_the_serial_numbers-en-verb-Z2E9rXgs",
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]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(fandom slang, idiomatic) To remove the copyrighted elements from an existing work of fan fiction so that it may be commercially published as original fiction."
],
"tags": [
"idiomatic",
"slang"
],
"topics": [
"lifestyle"
]
}
],
"sounds": [
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"word": "file off the serial numbers"
}
{
"etymology_text": "From the practice of filing the serial numbers off of firearms in order to make their origin and ownership difficult to trace.",
"forms": [
{
"form": "files off the serial numbers",
"tags": [
"present",
"singular",
"third-person"
]
},
{
"form": "filing off the serial numbers",
"tags": [
"participle",
"present"
]
},
{
"form": "filed off the serial numbers",
"tags": [
"participle",
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]
},
{
"form": "filed off the serial numbers",
"tags": [
"past"
]
}
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"expansion": "file off the serial numbers (third-person singular simple present files off the serial numbers, present participle filing off the serial numbers, simple past and past participle filed off the serial numbers)",
"name": "en-verb"
}
],
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{
"word": "pull-to-publish"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "verb",
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{
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],
"ref": "1998 March 6, Julie Lim, “Help!”, in rec.arts.sf.composition (Usenet):",
"text": "For a while now, I've been pottering away at a Star Wars fanfic novella ([URL redacted], if you must know). I've received a few pokes about filing off the serial numbers and trying to sell it as an independent work.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"bold_text_offsets": [
[
177,
206
]
],
"ref": "2002 January 15, David Thornley, “Re: harry potter”, in rec.games.int-fiction (Usenet):",
"text": "I've heard a rumor that Bujold started the Barrayar series as Star Trek fanfic, and there's enough resemblance there to make that seem very plausible to me. Suppose she did. By filing off the serial numbers, she was able to make the universe her own, to change as she needed to.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"bold_text_offsets": [
[
44,
72
]
],
"ref": "2012 April 1, Elizabeth Tai, “Quantity over quality?”, in The Star, Malaysia:",
"text": "I say “may have” because [E. L.] James has “filed off the serial numbers” of her fanfic.",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"To remove the copyrighted elements from an existing work of fan fiction so that it may be commercially published as original fiction."
],
"links": [
[
"fandom",
"fandom"
],
[
"slang",
"slang"
],
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],
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"fan fiction"
],
[
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],
[
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"published"
],
[
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],
[
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]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(fandom slang, idiomatic) To remove the copyrighted elements from an existing work of fan fiction so that it may be commercially published as original fiction."
],
"tags": [
"idiomatic",
"slang"
],
"topics": [
"lifestyle"
]
}
],
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"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/2/23/En-au-file_off_the_serial_numbers.ogg/En-au-file_off_the_serial_numbers.ogg.mp3",
"ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/23/En-au-file_off_the_serial_numbers.ogg"
}
],
"word": "file off the serial numbers"
}
Download raw JSONL data for file off the serial numbers meaning in All languages combined (3.1kB)
This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable All languages combined dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-06-05 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-06-01 using wiktextract (5ee713e and f1c2b61). 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.