See in the groove on Wiktionary
{
"etymology_text": "Originally mid-19th century slang with (usually pejorative) reference to the difficulty of leaving a well-worn rut (see in a rut). As back in the groove, the phrase acquired a positive sense of returning to one's usual self after a period of illness, setbacks, &c. With special regard for music, originally 1920s US jazz slang, possibly with reference to the grooves of early records.",
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {
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"head": ""
},
"expansion": "in the groove",
"name": "head"
},
{
"args": {},
"expansion": "in the groove",
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"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "prep_phrase",
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
{
"_dis": "50 11 39",
"kind": "other",
"name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
"parents": [
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"Entry maintenance"
],
"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "50 15 36",
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{
"_dis": "62 4 35",
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],
"glosses": [
"Running or performing extremely smoothly."
],
"id": "en-in_the_groove-en-prep_phrase-RA7aRV0E",
"links": [
[
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],
[
"performing",
"performing"
],
[
"extremely",
"extremely"
],
[
"smoothly",
"smoothly"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(colloquial) Running or performing extremely smoothly."
],
"tags": [
"colloquial"
]
},
{
"categories": [
{
"kind": "topical",
"langcode": "en",
"name": "Music",
"orig": "en:Music",
"parents": [
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"Sound",
"Culture",
"Energy",
"Society",
"Nature",
"All topics",
"Fundamental"
],
"source": "w"
}
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1933 Aug., Fortune, p. 90",
"text": "The jazz musicians gave no grandstand performances; they simply got a great burn from playing in the groove."
}
],
"glosses": [
"Playing perfectly, perfectly in sync with others, or with perfect focus."
],
"id": "en-in_the_groove-en-prep_phrase-SrVHTc8A",
"links": [
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[
"perfectly",
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],
"raw_glosses": [
"(music, slang) Playing perfectly, perfectly in sync with others, or with perfect focus."
],
"tags": [
"slang"
],
"topics": [
"entertainment",
"lifestyle",
"music"
]
},
{
"categories": [
{
"_dis": "25 33 42",
"kind": "topical",
"langcode": "en",
"name": "Jazz",
"orig": "en:Jazz",
"parents": [
"Musical genres",
"Genres",
"Music",
"Entertainment",
"Art",
"Sound",
"Culture",
"Energy",
"Society",
"Nature",
"All topics",
"Fundamental"
],
"source": "w+disamb"
}
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1869, J.E.T. Rogers's preface to Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations, Vol. I, p. 27",
"text": "The whole course of legislation... had flowed in the same groove for centuries."
},
{
"ref": "1932 Oct., Melody Maker, p. 836",
"text": "[…] having such a wonderful time which puts me in a groove […]"
},
{
"ref": "2005, Joe McCabe, Hanging Out With the Dream King: Conversations with Neil Gaiman, page 77:",
"text": "There's a time in everybody's life when they know precisely what is right. And when I was doing that, when I was in the groove, I knew exactly what was right.",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see in, groove."
],
"id": "en-in_the_groove-en-prep_phrase-yDvfw89D",
"links": [
[
"in",
"in#English"
],
[
"groove",
"groove#English"
]
],
"related": [
{
"_dis1": "3 22 75",
"word": "groovy"
}
],
"synonyms": [
{
"_dis1": "3 22 75",
"topics": [
"music",
"entertainment",
"lifestyle"
],
"word": "in the pocket"
},
{
"_dis1": "3 22 75",
"topics": [
"music",
"entertainment",
"lifestyle"
],
"word": "in the zone"
}
]
}
],
"word": "in the groove"
}
{
"categories": [
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"English idioms",
"English lemmas",
"English multiword terms",
"English prepositional phrases",
"Pages with 1 entry",
"Pages with entries",
"en:Jazz"
],
"etymology_text": "Originally mid-19th century slang with (usually pejorative) reference to the difficulty of leaving a well-worn rut (see in a rut). As back in the groove, the phrase acquired a positive sense of returning to one's usual self after a period of illness, setbacks, &c. With special regard for music, originally 1920s US jazz slang, possibly with reference to the grooves of early records.",
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "en",
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"head": ""
},
"expansion": "in the groove",
"name": "head"
},
{
"args": {},
"expansion": "in the groove",
"name": "en-PP"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "prep_phrase",
"related": [
{
"word": "groovy"
}
],
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
"English colloquialisms"
],
"glosses": [
"Running or performing extremely smoothly."
],
"links": [
[
"Running",
"running"
],
[
"performing",
"performing"
],
[
"extremely",
"extremely"
],
[
"smoothly",
"smoothly"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(colloquial) Running or performing extremely smoothly."
],
"tags": [
"colloquial"
]
},
{
"categories": [
"English slang",
"en:Music"
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1933 Aug., Fortune, p. 90",
"text": "The jazz musicians gave no grandstand performances; they simply got a great burn from playing in the groove."
}
],
"glosses": [
"Playing perfectly, perfectly in sync with others, or with perfect focus."
],
"links": [
[
"music",
"music"
],
[
"Playing",
"playing"
],
[
"perfectly",
"perfectly"
],
[
"in sync",
"in sync"
],
[
"others",
"others"
],
[
"perfect",
"perfect"
],
[
"focus",
"focus"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(music, slang) Playing perfectly, perfectly in sync with others, or with perfect focus."
],
"tags": [
"slang"
],
"topics": [
"entertainment",
"lifestyle",
"music"
]
},
{
"categories": [
"English terms with quotations",
"Quotation templates to be cleaned"
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1869, J.E.T. Rogers's preface to Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations, Vol. I, p. 27",
"text": "The whole course of legislation... had flowed in the same groove for centuries."
},
{
"ref": "1932 Oct., Melody Maker, p. 836",
"text": "[…] having such a wonderful time which puts me in a groove […]"
},
{
"ref": "2005, Joe McCabe, Hanging Out With the Dream King: Conversations with Neil Gaiman, page 77:",
"text": "There's a time in everybody's life when they know precisely what is right. And when I was doing that, when I was in the groove, I knew exactly what was right.",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see in, groove."
],
"links": [
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"in",
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],
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"groove",
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]
]
}
],
"synonyms": [
{
"topics": [
"music",
"entertainment",
"lifestyle"
],
"word": "in the pocket"
},
{
"topics": [
"music",
"entertainment",
"lifestyle"
],
"word": "in the zone"
}
],
"word": "in the groove"
}
Download raw JSONL data for in the groove meaning in All languages combined (2.9kB)
This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable All languages combined dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 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.