See throw the book at on Wiktionary
{
"etymology_text": "From the metaphor of a large book, containing all the possible laws broken or punishments for a particular crime, being thrown at an offender. Attested since at least 1897.",
"forms": [
{
"form": "throws the book at",
"tags": [
"present",
"singular",
"third-person"
]
},
{
"form": "throwing the book at",
"tags": [
"participle",
"present"
]
},
{
"form": "threw the book at",
"tags": [
"past"
]
},
{
"form": "thrown the book at",
"tags": [
"participle",
"past"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "throw<,,threw,thrown> the book at"
},
"expansion": "throw the book at (third-person singular simple present throws the book at, present participle throwing the book at, simple past threw the book at, past participle thrown the book at)",
"name": "en-verb"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "verb",
"senses": [
{
"categories": [],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1903 September 9, “COURT THROWS BOOK AT HIM”, in Spokesman-Review, Spokane, WA, page 5:",
"text": "COURT THROWS BOOK AT HIM: ... Thomas Pasco, beggar, got everything the statutes would permit Judge Binkle to give him yesterday afternoon.",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"To charge with or convict of as many crimes as possible."
],
"id": "en-throw_the_book_at-en-verb-5tLG-Ug-",
"raw_glosses": [
"(transitive, idiomatic, informal) To charge with or convict of as many crimes as possible."
],
"tags": [
"idiomatic",
"informal",
"transitive"
]
},
{
"categories": [
{
"_dis": "13 76 11",
"kind": "other",
"name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
"parents": [
"Entries with incorrect language header",
"Entry maintenance"
],
"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "19 63 17",
"kind": "other",
"name": "Entries with translation boxes",
"parents": [],
"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "14 68 17",
"kind": "other",
"name": "Pages with 1 entry",
"parents": [],
"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "10 82 8",
"kind": "other",
"name": "Pages with entries",
"parents": [],
"source": "w+disamb"
}
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1897 December 12, “Light Sentences for Criminals”, in Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Seattle, WA, page 16:",
"text": "[C]riminals ... dreaded to be brought into his court, as a conviction meant a severe sentence. As one criminal expressed it to another, \"The judge throws the book at you.\"",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "1926, Will James, Cowboys north and south, page 95:",
"text": "The judge, not weeping any, throws the book at him, which means he gives Bob the limit.",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"To apply the harshest possible punishment to."
],
"id": "en-throw_the_book_at-en-verb-ZBfqibv3",
"links": [
[
"harsh",
"harsh"
],
[
"punishment",
"punishment"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(transitive, idiomatic, informal) To apply the harshest possible punishment to."
],
"synonyms": [
{
"word": "throw the rulebook at"
}
],
"tags": [
"idiomatic",
"informal",
"transitive"
]
},
{
"glosses": [
"Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see throw, the, book, at."
],
"id": "en-throw_the_book_at-en-verb-t9AG2Tdj",
"links": [
[
"throw",
"throw#English"
],
[
"the",
"the#English"
],
[
"book",
"book#English"
],
[
"at",
"at#English"
]
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"audio": "En-au-throw the book at.ogg",
"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/e/e5/En-au-throw_the_book_at.ogg/En-au-throw_the_book_at.ogg.mp3",
"ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e5/En-au-throw_the_book_at.ogg"
}
],
"word": "throw the book at"
}
{
"categories": [
"English entries with incorrect language header",
"English lemmas",
"English multiword terms",
"English verbs",
"Entries with translation boxes",
"Pages with 1 entry",
"Pages with entries"
],
"etymology_text": "From the metaphor of a large book, containing all the possible laws broken or punishments for a particular crime, being thrown at an offender. Attested since at least 1897.",
"forms": [
{
"form": "throws the book at",
"tags": [
"present",
"singular",
"third-person"
]
},
{
"form": "throwing the book at",
"tags": [
"participle",
"present"
]
},
{
"form": "threw the book at",
"tags": [
"past"
]
},
{
"form": "thrown the book at",
"tags": [
"participle",
"past"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "throw<,,threw,thrown> the book at"
},
"expansion": "throw the book at (third-person singular simple present throws the book at, present participle throwing the book at, simple past threw the book at, past participle thrown the book at)",
"name": "en-verb"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "verb",
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
"English idioms",
"English informal terms",
"English terms with quotations",
"English transitive verbs"
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1903 September 9, “COURT THROWS BOOK AT HIM”, in Spokesman-Review, Spokane, WA, page 5:",
"text": "COURT THROWS BOOK AT HIM: ... Thomas Pasco, beggar, got everything the statutes would permit Judge Binkle to give him yesterday afternoon.",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"To charge with or convict of as many crimes as possible."
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(transitive, idiomatic, informal) To charge with or convict of as many crimes as possible."
],
"tags": [
"idiomatic",
"informal",
"transitive"
]
},
{
"categories": [
"English idioms",
"English informal terms",
"English terms with quotations",
"English transitive verbs"
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1897 December 12, “Light Sentences for Criminals”, in Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Seattle, WA, page 16:",
"text": "[C]riminals ... dreaded to be brought into his court, as a conviction meant a severe sentence. As one criminal expressed it to another, \"The judge throws the book at you.\"",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "1926, Will James, Cowboys north and south, page 95:",
"text": "The judge, not weeping any, throws the book at him, which means he gives Bob the limit.",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"To apply the harshest possible punishment to."
],
"links": [
[
"harsh",
"harsh"
],
[
"punishment",
"punishment"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(transitive, idiomatic, informal) To apply the harshest possible punishment to."
],
"synonyms": [
{
"word": "throw the rulebook at"
}
],
"tags": [
"idiomatic",
"informal",
"transitive"
]
},
{
"glosses": [
"Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see throw, the, book, at."
],
"links": [
[
"throw",
"throw#English"
],
[
"the",
"the#English"
],
[
"book",
"book#English"
],
[
"at",
"at#English"
]
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"audio": "En-au-throw the book at.ogg",
"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/e/e5/En-au-throw_the_book_at.ogg/En-au-throw_the_book_at.ogg.mp3",
"ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e5/En-au-throw_the_book_at.ogg"
}
],
"word": "throw the book at"
}
Download raw JSONL data for throw the book at meaning in All languages combined (3.1kB)
This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable All languages combined dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-01-31 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-01-20 using wiktextract (bcd5c38 and 9dbd323). 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.