"straw that stirs the drink" meaning in All languages combined

See straw that stirs the drink on Wiktionary

Noun [English]

Audio: En-au-straw that stirs the drink.ogg Forms: straws that stir the drink [plural]
Etymology: Possibly originating in 1977 with a widely-reported self-descriptive remark by baseball player Reggie Jackson. Head templates: {{en-noun|straws that stir the drink|head=straw that stirs the drink}} straw that stirs the drink (plural straws that stir the drink)
  1. (idiomatic, almost always preceded by the) The person who stimulates or inspires a group; the major factor affecting a trend or set of developments. Tags: idiomatic Categories (topical): People Synonyms: catalyst, instigator, mover and shaker, stimulus
    Sense id: en-straw_that_stirs_the_drink-en-noun-Zg0ak19n Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries

Inflected forms

{
  "etymology_text": "Possibly originating in 1977 with a widely-reported self-descriptive remark by baseball player Reggie Jackson.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "straws that stir the drink",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "straws that stir the drink",
        "head": "straw that stirs the drink"
      },
      "expansion": "straw that stirs the drink (plural straws that stir the drink)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "People",
          "orig": "en:People",
          "parents": [
            "Human",
            "All topics",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1977 May 26, Dave Anderson, “Reggie's woes”, in Star-News, North Carolina, USA, retrieved 2012-10-19, page 7D:",
          "text": "Reggie Jackson . . . apparently presumed his charisma would assume command of the clubhouse. . . . \" I'm the straw that stirs the drink,\" Reggie Jackson is quoted by Robert Ward in Sport magazine. \"It all comes back to me.\"",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1993 December 7, Jonathan Fuerbringer, “Credit Markets: Bond Prices Continuing to Rally”, in New York Times, retrieved 2012-10-19:",
          "text": "\"We have priced in 4 percent growth in the fourth quarter . . . ,\" said Alan Levenson, money market economist at UBS Securities. \"Growth is the straw that stirs the drink.\"",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2009 December 31, Michael Avila, “Top 10 ‘geek’ movies of the decade”, in NBC News, retrieved 2012-10-19:",
          "text": "[T]ake a bow, pop culture enthusiasts. You are now the straws that stir the drink. Geeks rule!",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2010 March 15, Josh Levine, “The Turbulent Times of Formula One”, in Time:",
          "text": "[H]e's still the straw that stirs the drink. Ecclestone alone makes the big TV, sponsorship and track deals that keep F1's cash gushing.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "The person who stimulates or inspires a group; the major factor affecting a trend or set of developments."
      ],
      "id": "en-straw_that_stirs_the_drink-en-noun-Zg0ak19n",
      "links": [
        [
          "the",
          "the#English"
        ],
        [
          "stimulate",
          "stimulate"
        ],
        [
          "inspire",
          "inspire"
        ],
        [
          "factor",
          "factor"
        ],
        [
          "trend",
          "trend"
        ],
        [
          "development",
          "development"
        ]
      ],
      "qualifier": "almost always preceded by the",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic, almost always preceded by the) The person who stimulates or inspires a group; the major factor affecting a trend or set of developments."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "catalyst"
        },
        {
          "word": "instigator"
        },
        {
          "word": "mover and shaker"
        },
        {
          "word": "stimulus"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "En-au-straw that stirs the drink.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/4/40/En-au-straw_that_stirs_the_drink.ogg/En-au-straw_that_stirs_the_drink.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/40/En-au-straw_that_stirs_the_drink.ogg"
    }
  ],
  "word": "straw that stirs the drink"
}
{
  "etymology_text": "Possibly originating in 1977 with a widely-reported self-descriptive remark by baseball player Reggie Jackson.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "straws that stir the drink",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "straws that stir the drink",
        "head": "straw that stirs the drink"
      },
      "expansion": "straw that stirs the drink (plural straws that stir the drink)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English countable nouns",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English idioms",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English nouns",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries",
        "en:People"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1977 May 26, Dave Anderson, “Reggie's woes”, in Star-News, North Carolina, USA, retrieved 2012-10-19, page 7D:",
          "text": "Reggie Jackson . . . apparently presumed his charisma would assume command of the clubhouse. . . . \" I'm the straw that stirs the drink,\" Reggie Jackson is quoted by Robert Ward in Sport magazine. \"It all comes back to me.\"",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1993 December 7, Jonathan Fuerbringer, “Credit Markets: Bond Prices Continuing to Rally”, in New York Times, retrieved 2012-10-19:",
          "text": "\"We have priced in 4 percent growth in the fourth quarter . . . ,\" said Alan Levenson, money market economist at UBS Securities. \"Growth is the straw that stirs the drink.\"",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2009 December 31, Michael Avila, “Top 10 ‘geek’ movies of the decade”, in NBC News, retrieved 2012-10-19:",
          "text": "[T]ake a bow, pop culture enthusiasts. You are now the straws that stir the drink. Geeks rule!",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2010 March 15, Josh Levine, “The Turbulent Times of Formula One”, in Time:",
          "text": "[H]e's still the straw that stirs the drink. Ecclestone alone makes the big TV, sponsorship and track deals that keep F1's cash gushing.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "The person who stimulates or inspires a group; the major factor affecting a trend or set of developments."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "the",
          "the#English"
        ],
        [
          "stimulate",
          "stimulate"
        ],
        [
          "inspire",
          "inspire"
        ],
        [
          "factor",
          "factor"
        ],
        [
          "trend",
          "trend"
        ],
        [
          "development",
          "development"
        ]
      ],
      "qualifier": "almost always preceded by the",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic, almost always preceded by the) The person who stimulates or inspires a group; the major factor affecting a trend or set of developments."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "En-au-straw that stirs the drink.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/4/40/En-au-straw_that_stirs_the_drink.ogg/En-au-straw_that_stirs_the_drink.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/40/En-au-straw_that_stirs_the_drink.ogg"
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "catalyst"
    },
    {
      "word": "instigator"
    },
    {
      "word": "mover and shaker"
    },
    {
      "word": "stimulus"
    }
  ],
  "word": "straw that stirs the drink"
}

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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 2024-11-28 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-11-21 using wiktextract (65a6e81 and 0dbea76). 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.