See knife-edge on Wiktionary
Download JSON data for knife-edge meaning in All languages combined (3.3kB)
{
"derived": [
{
"_dis1": "0 0 0",
"word": "knife-edge file"
}
],
"forms": [
{
"form": "knife-edges",
"tags": [
"plural"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {},
"expansion": "knife-edge (plural knife-edges)",
"name": "en-noun"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "noun",
"senses": [
{
"glosses": [
"A piece of steel sharpened to an acute edge or angle, and resting on a smooth surface, serving as the axis of motion of a pendulum, scale beam, or other piece required to oscillate with the least possible friction."
],
"id": "en-knife-edge-en-noun-VNVUo0Wt",
"links": [
[
"steel",
"steel"
],
[
"sharpen",
"sharpen"
],
[
"acute",
"acute"
],
[
"axis",
"axis"
],
[
"motion",
"motion"
],
[
"pendulum",
"pendulum"
],
[
"oscillate",
"oscillate"
],
[
"friction",
"friction"
]
]
},
{
"categories": [
{
"_dis": "16 80 4",
"kind": "other",
"name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
"parents": [
"Entries with incorrect language header",
"Entry maintenance"
],
"source": "w+disamb"
}
],
"examples": [
{
"text": "The game was on a knife-edge.",
"type": "example"
},
{
"ref": "2021 May 5, Drachinifel, 43:40 from the start, in Battle of Samar - What if TF34 was there?, archived from the original on 2022-08-19",
"text": "[…]meanwhile, Biloxi and Vincennes are both in the process of going down and being abandoned, whilst Miami is right on the knife-edge of being recoverable, with three destroyers clustering around offering pumping and additional damage-control crews to try and keep the light cruiser afloat.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2022 January 12, “Boris Johnson's future on a knife edge after No 10 party apology”, in The Guardian",
"text": "Boris Johnson's future on a knife edge after No 10 party apology [title]",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2023 April 2, Jon Henley, “Finland begins voting in knife-edge election”, in The Guardian, →ISSN",
"text": "Polling stations have opened in a knife-edge election in Finland, with polls suggesting the three leading parties are running neck-and-neck and prime minister Sanna Marin may face an uphill battle to stay in power.",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"A precarious balance that could be upset by a very small force in either direction."
],
"id": "en-knife-edge-en-noun-N-v6zBwI",
"links": [
[
"precarious",
"precarious"
],
[
"balance",
"balance"
],
[
"upset",
"upset"
],
[
"force",
"force"
],
[
"direction",
"direction"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(figuratively) A precarious balance that could be upset by a very small force in either direction."
],
"tags": [
"figuratively"
],
"translations": [
{
"_dis1": "1 99 0",
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "a precarious balance",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "Messers Schneide"
},
{
"_dis1": "1 99 0",
"code": "it",
"lang": "Italian",
"sense": "a precarious balance",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "filo del rasoio"
},
{
"_dis1": "1 99 0",
"code": "tr",
"lang": "Turkish",
"sense": "a precarious balance",
"word": "bıçak sırtı"
}
]
},
{
"categories": [
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "&lit not valid pagename",
"parents": [],
"source": "w"
}
],
"glosses": [
"Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: the edge of a knife."
],
"id": "en-knife-edge-en-noun-tgQ2KdN~",
"links": [
[
"edge",
"edge"
],
[
"knife",
"knife"
]
]
}
],
"synonyms": [
{
"_dis1": "0 0 0",
"word": "knife edge"
},
{
"_dis1": "0 0 0",
"word": "knife's edge"
},
{
"_dis1": "0 0 0",
"word": "knife's-edge"
}
],
"word": "knife-edge"
}
{
"categories": [
"English countable nouns",
"English entries with incorrect language header",
"English lemmas",
"English multiword terms",
"English nouns"
],
"derived": [
{
"word": "knife-edge file"
}
],
"forms": [
{
"form": "knife-edges",
"tags": [
"plural"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {},
"expansion": "knife-edge (plural knife-edges)",
"name": "en-noun"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "noun",
"senses": [
{
"glosses": [
"A piece of steel sharpened to an acute edge or angle, and resting on a smooth surface, serving as the axis of motion of a pendulum, scale beam, or other piece required to oscillate with the least possible friction."
],
"links": [
[
"steel",
"steel"
],
[
"sharpen",
"sharpen"
],
[
"acute",
"acute"
],
[
"axis",
"axis"
],
[
"motion",
"motion"
],
[
"pendulum",
"pendulum"
],
[
"oscillate",
"oscillate"
],
[
"friction",
"friction"
]
]
},
{
"categories": [
"English terms with quotations",
"English terms with usage examples"
],
"examples": [
{
"text": "The game was on a knife-edge.",
"type": "example"
},
{
"ref": "2021 May 5, Drachinifel, 43:40 from the start, in Battle of Samar - What if TF34 was there?, archived from the original on 2022-08-19",
"text": "[…]meanwhile, Biloxi and Vincennes are both in the process of going down and being abandoned, whilst Miami is right on the knife-edge of being recoverable, with three destroyers clustering around offering pumping and additional damage-control crews to try and keep the light cruiser afloat.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2022 January 12, “Boris Johnson's future on a knife edge after No 10 party apology”, in The Guardian",
"text": "Boris Johnson's future on a knife edge after No 10 party apology [title]",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2023 April 2, Jon Henley, “Finland begins voting in knife-edge election”, in The Guardian, →ISSN",
"text": "Polling stations have opened in a knife-edge election in Finland, with polls suggesting the three leading parties are running neck-and-neck and prime minister Sanna Marin may face an uphill battle to stay in power.",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"A precarious balance that could be upset by a very small force in either direction."
],
"links": [
[
"precarious",
"precarious"
],
[
"balance",
"balance"
],
[
"upset",
"upset"
],
[
"force",
"force"
],
[
"direction",
"direction"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(figuratively) A precarious balance that could be upset by a very small force in either direction."
],
"tags": [
"figuratively"
]
},
{
"categories": [
"&lit not valid pagename"
],
"glosses": [
"Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: the edge of a knife."
],
"links": [
[
"edge",
"edge"
],
[
"knife",
"knife"
]
]
}
],
"synonyms": [
{
"word": "knife edge"
},
{
"word": "knife's edge"
},
{
"word": "knife's-edge"
}
],
"translations": [
{
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "a precarious balance",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "Messers Schneide"
},
{
"code": "it",
"lang": "Italian",
"sense": "a precarious balance",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "filo del rasoio"
},
{
"code": "tr",
"lang": "Turkish",
"sense": "a precarious balance",
"word": "bıçak sırtı"
}
],
"word": "knife-edge"
}
This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable All languages combined dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-03 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-05-02 using wiktextract (f4fd8c9 and c9440ce). 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.