"tug one's forelock" meaning in All languages combined

See tug one's forelock on Wiktionary

Verb [English]

Forms: tugs one's forelock [present, singular, third-person], tugging one's forelock [participle, present], tugged one's forelock [participle, past], tugged one's forelock [past]
Etymology: From a traditional gesture of respect to the higher classes, pulling down one’s front piece of hair or cap in a mock bow. Head templates: {{en-verb|*}} tug one's forelock (third-person singular simple present tugs one's forelock, present participle tugging one's forelock, simple past and past participle tugged one's forelock)
  1. (intransitive, idiomatic, often satirical or contemptuous) To show deference or obsequious respect. Tags: idiomatic, intransitive Synonyms: bow and scrape, pull one's forelock, touch one's forelock
    Sense id: en-tug_one's_forelock-en-verb-oMi9VhPZ Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries

Inflected forms

Alternative forms

{
  "etymology_text": "From a traditional gesture of respect to the higher classes, pulling down one’s front piece of hair or cap in a mock bow.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "tugs one's forelock",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "tugging one's forelock",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "tugged one's forelock",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "tugged one's forelock",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "*"
      },
      "expansion": "tug one's forelock (third-person singular simple present tugs one's forelock, present participle tugging one's forelock, simple past and past participle tugged one's forelock)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "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"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1988, David Corson, Education for Work: Background to Policy and Curriculum, page 228:",
          "text": "These students were quite capable of tugging their forelocks while raising two fingers behind their backs (Newby, 1977), i.e. producing deferential behaviour as part of a more complicated game of manipulation.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2013, William G. Tapply, The Dutch Blue Error:",
          "text": "\"Aw, lay off, will you? It's part of my job, you know that.\" \"Yeah, bowing and scraping and tugging your forelock to all those rich old crones. Somebody's chauffeur probably got a scratch on the El Dorado, huh?\"",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To show deference or obsequious respect."
      ],
      "id": "en-tug_one's_forelock-en-verb-oMi9VhPZ",
      "links": [
        [
          "deference",
          "deference"
        ],
        [
          "obsequious",
          "obsequious"
        ],
        [
          "respect",
          "respect"
        ]
      ],
      "qualifier": "often satirical or contemptuous",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(intransitive, idiomatic, often satirical or contemptuous) To show deference or obsequious respect."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "bow and scrape"
        },
        {
          "word": "pull one's forelock"
        },
        {
          "word": "touch one's forelock"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic",
        "intransitive"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "tug one's forelock"
}
{
  "etymology_text": "From a traditional gesture of respect to the higher classes, pulling down one’s front piece of hair or cap in a mock bow.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "tugs one's forelock",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "tugging one's forelock",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "tugged one's forelock",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "tugged one's forelock",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "*"
      },
      "expansion": "tug one's forelock (third-person singular simple present tugs one's forelock, present participle tugging one's forelock, simple past and past participle tugged one's forelock)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English idioms",
        "English intransitive verbs",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English verbs",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries",
        "Quotation templates to be cleaned"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1988, David Corson, Education for Work: Background to Policy and Curriculum, page 228:",
          "text": "These students were quite capable of tugging their forelocks while raising two fingers behind their backs (Newby, 1977), i.e. producing deferential behaviour as part of a more complicated game of manipulation.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2013, William G. Tapply, The Dutch Blue Error:",
          "text": "\"Aw, lay off, will you? It's part of my job, you know that.\" \"Yeah, bowing and scraping and tugging your forelock to all those rich old crones. Somebody's chauffeur probably got a scratch on the El Dorado, huh?\"",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To show deference or obsequious respect."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "deference",
          "deference"
        ],
        [
          "obsequious",
          "obsequious"
        ],
        [
          "respect",
          "respect"
        ]
      ],
      "qualifier": "often satirical or contemptuous",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(intransitive, idiomatic, often satirical or contemptuous) To show deference or obsequious respect."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "bow and scrape"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic",
        "intransitive"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "pull one's forelock"
    },
    {
      "word": "touch one's forelock"
    }
  ],
  "word": "tug one's forelock"
}

Download raw JSONL data for tug one's forelock meaning in All languages combined (2.2kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable All languages combined dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-02-03 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-01-20 using wiktextract (05fdf6b 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.