"lay a glove on" meaning in All languages combined

See lay a glove on on Wiktionary

Verb [English]

Forms: lays a glove on [present, singular, third-person], laying a glove on [participle, present], laid a glove on [participle, past], laid a glove on [past]
Etymology: From the sport of boxing, referring to managing to hit someone with one's boxing glove. Head templates: {{en-verb|lay<,,laid> a glove on}} lay a glove on (third-person singular simple present lays a glove on, present participle laying a glove on, simple past and past participle laid a glove on)
  1. (boxing) To hit with a boxing glove. Categories (topical): Boxing
    Sense id: en-lay_a_glove_on-en-verb-XWXsvr9f Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 60 8 19 12 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 57 11 16 16 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 69 9 13 9 Topics: boxing, government, hobbies, lifestyle, martial-arts, military, politics, sports, war
  2. (chiefly in the negative) To physically touch, especially in a way that causes hurt.
    Sense id: en-lay_a_glove_on-en-verb-6~pj0-Z7 Categories (other): English negative polarity items
  3. (by extension) To harm (someone's) reputation, to make an accusation stick. Tags: broadly
    Sense id: en-lay_a_glove_on-en-verb-vIxiUdna
  4. To match, to provide with meaningful competition or be able to handle.
    Sense id: en-lay_a_glove_on-en-verb-N9u301U-

Inflected forms

{
  "etymology_text": "From the sport of boxing, referring to managing to hit someone with one's boxing glove.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "lays a glove on",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "laying a glove on",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "laid a glove on",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "laid a glove on",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "lay<,,laid> a glove on"
      },
      "expansion": "lay a glove on (third-person singular simple present lays a glove on, present participle laying a glove on, simple past and past participle laid a glove on)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Boxing",
          "orig": "en:Boxing",
          "parents": [
            "Sports",
            "Human activity",
            "Human behaviour",
            "Human",
            "All topics",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "60 8 19 12",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "57 11 16 16",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "69 9 13 9",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2004, Morris Katz, The Journey, →ISBN, page 78:",
          "text": "“You were so good he couldn't lay a glove on you. You were terrific. He tired to hit you with his knockout punch but you skillfully avoided it - do you remember how his glove whistled harmlessly past your head?",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2012, Roland Perry, The Changi Brownlow, →ISBN:",
          "text": "In round three, Toxa moved in and out jabbing, scoring often with the bigger man unable to lay a glove on him.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2014, Davide Enia, On Earth as It Is in Heaven: A Novel, →ISBN, page 42:",
          "text": "Umbertino couldn't lay a glove on him. Big as he was, all it would have taken was a punch, a single roundhouse and he would have decked him. But the other guy was a grasshopper.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To hit with a boxing glove."
      ],
      "id": "en-lay_a_glove_on-en-verb-XWXsvr9f",
      "links": [
        [
          "boxing",
          "boxing#Noun"
        ],
        [
          "hit",
          "hit"
        ],
        [
          "boxing glove",
          "boxing glove"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(boxing) To hit with a boxing glove."
      ],
      "topics": [
        "boxing",
        "government",
        "hobbies",
        "lifestyle",
        "martial-arts",
        "military",
        "politics",
        "sports",
        "war"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English negative polarity items",
          "parents": [
            "Negative polarity items",
            "Terms by semantic function"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2003, Bob Weir, Short Stories of Life and Death: Complexities of the Human Experience, →ISBN:",
          "text": "The blinking headlights in his rearview mirror indicated the driver's anger at almost being sideswiped. “Oh, get a grip on yourself,” Dave groused as he continued accelerating. “I didn't even lay a glove on ya,” he giggled.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2005, Jean Minton, In the Ruins, →ISBN, page 23:",
          "text": "“No, you needn't worry, Peres,” he'd gone on. “I wouldn't lay a glove on you. I've been meaning to tell you; you're really not my type at all. I just didn't want...Well, you know—your self-esteem and all that. You can understand, can't you?”",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2007, James D. Doss, Stone Butterfly: A Charlie Moon Mystery, →ISBN:",
          "text": "Moon was the soul of serene self-control. “He won't lay a glove on her, McTeague.” “How can you be so sure?” “Code of the West. No self-respecting frontier lawman will hit a woman.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2011, Pat G'Orge-Walker, No Ordinary Noel, →ISBN, page 196:",
          "text": "I told him not to lay a glove on you, but do like Beyoncé said, and lay a ring on you instead.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To physically touch, especially in a way that causes hurt."
      ],
      "id": "en-lay_a_glove_on-en-verb-6~pj0-Z7",
      "links": [
        [
          "physical",
          "physical"
        ],
        [
          "touch",
          "touch"
        ],
        [
          "hurt",
          "hurt"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(chiefly in the negative) To physically touch, especially in a way that causes hurt."
      ],
      "raw_tags": [
        "in the negative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2003, Sidney Blumenthal, The Clinton Wars, →ISBN:",
          "text": "It was more than an anticlimax: it was a triumph for the President. “They didn't lay a glove on him,” Robert Bennett, his lawyer, told me. “On a scale of one to ten, it was a fifteen.”",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2012, Ronald P. Formisano, Boston Against Busing: Race, Class, and Ethnicity in the 1960s and 1970s, →ISBN:",
          "text": "“The courts couldn't lay a glove on you, if that's what you did,\" said Silber.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2013, Tevi Troy, What Jefferson Read, Ike Watched, and Obama Tweeted, →ISBN, page 144:",
          "text": "Even Saturday Night Live, the scourge of President Ford, could hardly lay a glove on the “Teflon president.”",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2014, Jim Ore, Crime is Everywhere, →ISBN, page 148:",
          "text": "But if you say absolutely nothing they can't just keep you inside and do nothing with you. No feedback from you and they have nothing to lay a glove on you with and have to let you go sometime.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To harm (someone's) reputation, to make an accusation stick."
      ],
      "id": "en-lay_a_glove_on-en-verb-vIxiUdna",
      "links": [
        [
          "harm",
          "harm"
        ],
        [
          "accusation",
          "accusation"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(by extension) To harm (someone's) reputation, to make an accusation stick."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "broadly"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1994, United States Congress House Committee on Appropriations. Subcommittee on Foreign Operations, Export Financing, and Related Programs, Foreign Operations, Export Financing, and Related:",
          "text": "And I was dubious because I thought the problem was so huge that no small amount of money that we would put in this bill would lay a glove on the problem.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2014, David Horowitz, Take No Prisoners: The Battle Plan for Defeating the Left, →ISBN:",
          "text": "His team did not think that their candidate was so likeable that Romney couldn't lay a glove on him. Quite the opposite.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2018 January 28, Dafydd Pritchard, “Cardiff City 1 - 1 Manchester City”, in BBC Sport:",
          "text": "Warnock described City as the best team in Europe in the build-up to this match and joked that his players had been preparing for the game - and City's inevitable dominance - by training without a ball.\nIt proved to be a prescient quip, as the home side had to toil for long periods, struggling to lay a glove on their stylish opponents.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To match, to provide with meaningful competition or be able to handle."
      ],
      "id": "en-lay_a_glove_on-en-verb-N9u301U-",
      "links": [
        [
          "match",
          "match"
        ],
        [
          "meaningful",
          "meaningful"
        ],
        [
          "competition",
          "competition"
        ],
        [
          "handle",
          "handle"
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "lay a glove on"
}
{
  "categories": [
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English verbs",
    "Pages with 1 entry",
    "Pages with entries"
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From the sport of boxing, referring to managing to hit someone with one's boxing glove.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "lays a glove on",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "laying a glove on",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "laid a glove on",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "laid a glove on",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "lay<,,laid> a glove on"
      },
      "expansion": "lay a glove on (third-person singular simple present lays a glove on, present participle laying a glove on, simple past and past participle laid a glove on)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with quotations",
        "en:Boxing"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2004, Morris Katz, The Journey, →ISBN, page 78:",
          "text": "“You were so good he couldn't lay a glove on you. You were terrific. He tired to hit you with his knockout punch but you skillfully avoided it - do you remember how his glove whistled harmlessly past your head?",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2012, Roland Perry, The Changi Brownlow, →ISBN:",
          "text": "In round three, Toxa moved in and out jabbing, scoring often with the bigger man unable to lay a glove on him.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2014, Davide Enia, On Earth as It Is in Heaven: A Novel, →ISBN, page 42:",
          "text": "Umbertino couldn't lay a glove on him. Big as he was, all it would have taken was a punch, a single roundhouse and he would have decked him. But the other guy was a grasshopper.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To hit with a boxing glove."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "boxing",
          "boxing#Noun"
        ],
        [
          "hit",
          "hit"
        ],
        [
          "boxing glove",
          "boxing glove"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(boxing) To hit with a boxing glove."
      ],
      "topics": [
        "boxing",
        "government",
        "hobbies",
        "lifestyle",
        "martial-arts",
        "military",
        "politics",
        "sports",
        "war"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English negative polarity items",
        "English terms with quotations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2003, Bob Weir, Short Stories of Life and Death: Complexities of the Human Experience, →ISBN:",
          "text": "The blinking headlights in his rearview mirror indicated the driver's anger at almost being sideswiped. “Oh, get a grip on yourself,” Dave groused as he continued accelerating. “I didn't even lay a glove on ya,” he giggled.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2005, Jean Minton, In the Ruins, →ISBN, page 23:",
          "text": "“No, you needn't worry, Peres,” he'd gone on. “I wouldn't lay a glove on you. I've been meaning to tell you; you're really not my type at all. I just didn't want...Well, you know—your self-esteem and all that. You can understand, can't you?”",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2007, James D. Doss, Stone Butterfly: A Charlie Moon Mystery, →ISBN:",
          "text": "Moon was the soul of serene self-control. “He won't lay a glove on her, McTeague.” “How can you be so sure?” “Code of the West. No self-respecting frontier lawman will hit a woman.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2011, Pat G'Orge-Walker, No Ordinary Noel, →ISBN, page 196:",
          "text": "I told him not to lay a glove on you, but do like Beyoncé said, and lay a ring on you instead.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To physically touch, especially in a way that causes hurt."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "physical",
          "physical"
        ],
        [
          "touch",
          "touch"
        ],
        [
          "hurt",
          "hurt"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(chiefly in the negative) To physically touch, especially in a way that causes hurt."
      ],
      "raw_tags": [
        "in the negative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with quotations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2003, Sidney Blumenthal, The Clinton Wars, →ISBN:",
          "text": "It was more than an anticlimax: it was a triumph for the President. “They didn't lay a glove on him,” Robert Bennett, his lawyer, told me. “On a scale of one to ten, it was a fifteen.”",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2012, Ronald P. Formisano, Boston Against Busing: Race, Class, and Ethnicity in the 1960s and 1970s, →ISBN:",
          "text": "“The courts couldn't lay a glove on you, if that's what you did,\" said Silber.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2013, Tevi Troy, What Jefferson Read, Ike Watched, and Obama Tweeted, →ISBN, page 144:",
          "text": "Even Saturday Night Live, the scourge of President Ford, could hardly lay a glove on the “Teflon president.”",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2014, Jim Ore, Crime is Everywhere, →ISBN, page 148:",
          "text": "But if you say absolutely nothing they can't just keep you inside and do nothing with you. No feedback from you and they have nothing to lay a glove on you with and have to let you go sometime.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To harm (someone's) reputation, to make an accusation stick."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "harm",
          "harm"
        ],
        [
          "accusation",
          "accusation"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(by extension) To harm (someone's) reputation, to make an accusation stick."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "broadly"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with quotations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1994, United States Congress House Committee on Appropriations. Subcommittee on Foreign Operations, Export Financing, and Related Programs, Foreign Operations, Export Financing, and Related:",
          "text": "And I was dubious because I thought the problem was so huge that no small amount of money that we would put in this bill would lay a glove on the problem.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2014, David Horowitz, Take No Prisoners: The Battle Plan for Defeating the Left, →ISBN:",
          "text": "His team did not think that their candidate was so likeable that Romney couldn't lay a glove on him. Quite the opposite.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2018 January 28, Dafydd Pritchard, “Cardiff City 1 - 1 Manchester City”, in BBC Sport:",
          "text": "Warnock described City as the best team in Europe in the build-up to this match and joked that his players had been preparing for the game - and City's inevitable dominance - by training without a ball.\nIt proved to be a prescient quip, as the home side had to toil for long periods, struggling to lay a glove on their stylish opponents.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To match, to provide with meaningful competition or be able to handle."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "match",
          "match"
        ],
        [
          "meaningful",
          "meaningful"
        ],
        [
          "competition",
          "competition"
        ],
        [
          "handle",
          "handle"
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "lay a glove on"
}

Download raw JSONL data for lay a glove on meaning in All languages combined (6.3kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable All languages combined dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-12-03 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-11-21 using wiktextract (94ba7e1 and 5dea2a6). 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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