"shrinking violet" meaning in All languages combined

See shrinking violet on Wiktionary

Noun [English]

IPA: /ˈʃɹɪŋkɪŋ ˈvaɪələt/ [Received-Pronunciation], /ˈʃɹɪŋkɪŋ ˈvaɪlət/ [Received-Pronunciation], /-lɪt/ [Received-Pronunciation], /ˈʃɹɪŋkɪŋ ˈvaɪələt/ [General-American], /ˈʃɹɪŋkɪŋ ˈvaɪlət/ [General-American] Audio: en-au-shrinking violet.ogg [Australia] Forms: shrinking violets [plural]
Etymology: Possibly from the inconspicuous nature of the violet (genus Viola) flower and plant. The term appears to have been first used in the literal sense in the early 19th century. Etymology templates: {{nb...}} […] Head templates: {{en-noun}} shrinking violet (plural shrinking violets)
  1. (idiomatic) A very shy or timid person, who avoids contact with others if possible. Wikipedia link: Michael Quinion Tags: idiomatic Categories (topical): Emotions, People, Personality Categories (lifeform): Violet family plants Synonyms: shy person Related terms: wallflower Translations (very shy person): χαμηλοβλεπούσα (chamilovlepoúsa) [feminine] (Greek), срамежливец (sramežlivec) [masculine] (Macedonian), trusia [feminine, masculine] (Polish)

Inflected forms

Download JSON data for shrinking violet meaning in All languages combined (4.0kB)

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  "etymology_text": "Possibly from the inconspicuous nature of the violet (genus Viola) flower and plant. The term appears to have been first used in the literal sense in the early 19th century.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "shrinking violets",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
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  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
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          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
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          "kind": "topical",
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        },
        {
          "kind": "lifeform",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Violet family plants",
          "orig": "en:Violet family plants",
          "parents": [
            "Malpighiales order plants",
            "Plants",
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            "All topics",
            "Life",
            "Fundamental",
            "Nature"
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        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "June, no shrinking violet she, crossed the room and introduced herself to the newcomers.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1965, “So Long Mom (A Song for World War III)” (track 1, side 2), in That Was the Year That Was, performed by Tom Lehrer",
          "text": "Little Johnny Jones, he was a US pilot / And no shrinking violet was he / He was mighty proud when World War III was declared / He wasn't scared, no siree!",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A very shy or timid person, who avoids contact with others if possible."
      ],
      "id": "en-shrinking_violet-en-noun-UGIxUatE",
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      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) A very shy or timid person, who avoids contact with others if possible."
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "word": "wallflower"
        }
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "shy person"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "code": "el",
          "lang": "Greek",
          "roman": "chamilovlepoúsa",
          "sense": "very shy person",
          "tags": [
            "feminine"
          ],
          "word": "χαμηλοβλεπούσα"
        },
        {
          "code": "mk",
          "lang": "Macedonian",
          "roman": "sramežlivec",
          "sense": "very shy person",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "срамежливец"
        },
        {
          "code": "pl",
          "lang": "Polish",
          "sense": "very shy person",
          "tags": [
            "feminine",
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "trusia"
        }
      ],
      "wikipedia": [
        "Michael Quinion"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈʃɹɪŋkɪŋ ˈvaɪələt/",
      "tags": [
        "Received-Pronunciation"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈʃɹɪŋkɪŋ ˈvaɪlət/",
      "tags": [
        "Received-Pronunciation"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/-lɪt/",
      "tags": [
        "Received-Pronunciation"
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    },
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈʃɹɪŋkɪŋ ˈvaɪələt/",
      "tags": [
        "General-American"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈʃɹɪŋkɪŋ ˈvaɪlət/",
      "tags": [
        "General-American"
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    },
    {
      "audio": "en-au-shrinking violet.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/4/42/En-au-shrinking_violet.ogg/En-au-shrinking_violet.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/42/En-au-shrinking_violet.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "word": "shrinking violet"
}
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  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "shrinking violets",
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      "args": {},
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  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
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      "word": "wallflower"
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        "English terms with IPA pronunciation",
        "English terms with audio links",
        "English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English terms with usage examples",
        "Pages with raw sortkeys",
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        "en:Emotions",
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          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1965, “So Long Mom (A Song for World War III)” (track 1, side 2), in That Was the Year That Was, performed by Tom Lehrer",
          "text": "Little Johnny Jones, he was a US pilot / And no shrinking violet was he / He was mighty proud when World War III was declared / He wasn't scared, no siree!",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A very shy or timid person, who avoids contact with others if possible."
      ],
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      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) A very shy or timid person, who avoids contact with others if possible."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
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      "wikipedia": [
        "Michael Quinion"
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      "tags": [
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    },
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈʃɹɪŋkɪŋ ˈvaɪlət/",
      "tags": [
        "Received-Pronunciation"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/-lɪt/",
      "tags": [
        "Received-Pronunciation"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈʃɹɪŋkɪŋ ˈvaɪələt/",
      "tags": [
        "General-American"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈʃɹɪŋkɪŋ ˈvaɪlət/",
      "tags": [
        "General-American"
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    },
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      "audio": "en-au-shrinking violet.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/4/42/En-au-shrinking_violet.ogg/En-au-shrinking_violet.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/42/En-au-shrinking_violet.ogg",
      "tags": [
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    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "shy person"
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "el",
      "lang": "Greek",
      "roman": "chamilovlepoúsa",
      "sense": "very shy person",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "χαμηλοβλεπούσα"
    },
    {
      "code": "mk",
      "lang": "Macedonian",
      "roman": "sramežlivec",
      "sense": "very shy person",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "срамежливец"
    },
    {
      "code": "pl",
      "lang": "Polish",
      "sense": "very shy person",
      "tags": [
        "feminine",
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "trusia"
    }
  ],
  "word": "shrinking violet"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable All languages combined dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-10 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-05-02 using wiktextract (a644e18 and edd475d). 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.