See kick the beam on Wiktionary
{ "etymology_text": "Referencing a loaded balance, whose lighter arm would rise up and strike the beam.", "forms": [ { "form": "kicks the beam", "tags": [ "present", "singular", "third-person" ] }, { "form": "kicking the beam", "tags": [ "participle", "present" ] }, { "form": "kicked the beam", "tags": [ "participle", "past" ] }, { "form": "kicked the beam", "tags": [ "past" ] } ], "head_templates": [ { "args": { "1": "*" }, "expansion": "kick the beam (third-person singular simple present kicks the beam, present participle kicking the beam, simple past and past participle kicked the beam)", "name": "en-verb" } ], "lang": "English", "lang_code": "en", "pos": "verb", "senses": [ { "categories": [ { "kind": "other", "name": "English entries with incorrect language header", "parents": [], "source": "w" }, { "kind": "other", "name": "Pages with 1 entry", "parents": [], "source": "w" }, { "kind": "other", "name": "Pages with entries", "parents": [], "source": "w" } ], "examples": [ { "bold_text_offsets": [ [ 30, 45 ] ], "ref": "1667, John Milton, “Book IV”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC, lines 1004-1005:", "text": "The latter quick up flew, and kick'd the beam; / Which Gabriel spying, thus bespake the Fiend.", "type": "quote" }, { "bold_text_offsets": [ [ 110, 123 ] ], "ref": "1846, John Greenleaf Whittier, The Pine-Tree (poem):", "text": "Is the dollar only real? God and truth and right a dream?\nWeighed against your lying ledgers must our manhood kick the beam?", "type": "quote" }, { "bold_text_offsets": [ [ 349, 362 ] ], "ref": "1918 March 27, Ian Hay, “America At War”, in The Times:", "text": "To-day she is at war; she has no surplus resources; all her energy is concentrated on herself, and will be until she is ready and equipped for battle. When that happens—when her vast potential energy has been converted into dynamic energy—she will step heavily into that scale of the balance recently vacated by Russia, and Prussian militarism will kick the beam.", "type": "quote" } ], "glosses": [ "To lack in weight, importance, or strength compared to another." ], "id": "en-kick_the_beam-en-verb-Si4cKNIH", "raw_glosses": [ "(idiomatic, archaic) To lack in weight, importance, or strength compared to another." ], "tags": [ "archaic", "idiomatic" ] } ], "word": "kick the beam" }
{ "etymology_text": "Referencing a loaded balance, whose lighter arm would rise up and strike the beam.", "forms": [ { "form": "kicks the beam", "tags": [ "present", "singular", "third-person" ] }, { "form": "kicking the beam", "tags": [ "participle", "present" ] }, { "form": "kicked the beam", "tags": [ "participle", "past" ] }, { "form": "kicked the beam", "tags": [ "past" ] } ], "head_templates": [ { "args": { "1": "*" }, "expansion": "kick the beam (third-person singular simple present kicks the beam, present participle kicking the beam, simple past and past participle kicked the beam)", "name": "en-verb" } ], "lang": "English", "lang_code": "en", "pos": "verb", "senses": [ { "categories": [ "English entries with incorrect language header", "English idioms", "English lemmas", "English multiword terms", "English terms with archaic senses", "English terms with quotations", "English verbs", "Pages with 1 entry", "Pages with entries", "Quotation templates to be cleaned" ], "examples": [ { "bold_text_offsets": [ [ 30, 45 ] ], "ref": "1667, John Milton, “Book IV”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC, lines 1004-1005:", "text": "The latter quick up flew, and kick'd the beam; / Which Gabriel spying, thus bespake the Fiend.", "type": "quote" }, { "bold_text_offsets": [ [ 110, 123 ] ], "ref": "1846, John Greenleaf Whittier, The Pine-Tree (poem):", "text": "Is the dollar only real? God and truth and right a dream?\nWeighed against your lying ledgers must our manhood kick the beam?", "type": "quote" }, { "bold_text_offsets": [ [ 349, 362 ] ], "ref": "1918 March 27, Ian Hay, “America At War”, in The Times:", "text": "To-day she is at war; she has no surplus resources; all her energy is concentrated on herself, and will be until she is ready and equipped for battle. When that happens—when her vast potential energy has been converted into dynamic energy—she will step heavily into that scale of the balance recently vacated by Russia, and Prussian militarism will kick the beam.", "type": "quote" } ], "glosses": [ "To lack in weight, importance, or strength compared to another." ], "raw_glosses": [ "(idiomatic, archaic) To lack in weight, importance, or strength compared to another." ], "tags": [ "archaic", "idiomatic" ] } ], "word": "kick the beam" }
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This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable All languages combined dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-05-24 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-05-20 using wiktextract (5d527b9 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.
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