See unicorn bait on Wiktionary
{ "etymology_text": "From the tradition that only a virgin could tame a unicorn, leading hunters to use virgins to lure the legendary beast into being captured.", "head_templates": [ { "args": { "1": "-" }, "expansion": "unicorn bait (uncountable)", "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": "1966, David R. Slavitt, Rochelle: or, Virtue Rewarded, Chapman and Hall, published 1966, page 118:", "text": "She had turned herself back into a virgin again, with that flair for backwardness of hers. An unusual talent, I thought, but of no particular use - except perhaps in a cat-house, where, by exercising it she might continue to fetch premium prices from customers with a special taste for unicorn bait.", "type": "quote" }, { "ref": "2007, Mercedes Lackey, Fortune's Fool, Luna, →ISBN, page 120:", "text": "Who'd marry the Fool? Who'd betroth his daughter to the Fool? The very scorn that made his magic possible also made any kind of a normal life impossible. The only chance to find a woman lay among the magical creatures of the realm…and he wasn't at all sure that he wanted to make that kind of alliance with one of them.\n[…]\nHe stared glumly down at his reflection in the mead, thinking with resignation that he was, in all probability, doomed to live and die as unicorn bait.", "type": "quote" }, { "ref": "2010, L. J. Smith, The Vampire Diaries: The Return: Shadow Souls, HarperTeen, →ISBN, page 140:", "text": "He looked at her, startled and a little disappointed. Then he shrugged. \"Still unicorn bait,\" he said.", "type": "quote" } ], "glosses": [ "A virgin." ], "id": "en-unicorn_bait-en-noun-LZueXgq6", "links": [ [ "humorous", "humorous" ], [ "virgin", "virgin" ] ], "raw_glosses": [ "(slang, humorous) A virgin." ], "tags": [ "humorous", "slang", "uncountable" ] } ], "sounds": [ { "audio": "En-au-unicorn bait.ogg", "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/8/8d/En-au-unicorn_bait.ogg/En-au-unicorn_bait.ogg.mp3", "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8d/En-au-unicorn_bait.ogg" } ], "word": "unicorn bait" }
{ "etymology_text": "From the tradition that only a virgin could tame a unicorn, leading hunters to use virgins to lure the legendary beast into being captured.", "head_templates": [ { "args": { "1": "-" }, "expansion": "unicorn bait (uncountable)", "name": "en-noun" } ], "lang": "English", "lang_code": "en", "pos": "noun", "senses": [ { "categories": [ "English entries with incorrect language header", "English humorous terms", "English lemmas", "English multiword terms", "English nouns", "English slang", "English terms with quotations", "English uncountable nouns", "Pages with 1 entry", "Pages with entries", "en:People" ], "examples": [ { "ref": "1966, David R. Slavitt, Rochelle: or, Virtue Rewarded, Chapman and Hall, published 1966, page 118:", "text": "She had turned herself back into a virgin again, with that flair for backwardness of hers. An unusual talent, I thought, but of no particular use - except perhaps in a cat-house, where, by exercising it she might continue to fetch premium prices from customers with a special taste for unicorn bait.", "type": "quote" }, { "ref": "2007, Mercedes Lackey, Fortune's Fool, Luna, →ISBN, page 120:", "text": "Who'd marry the Fool? Who'd betroth his daughter to the Fool? The very scorn that made his magic possible also made any kind of a normal life impossible. The only chance to find a woman lay among the magical creatures of the realm…and he wasn't at all sure that he wanted to make that kind of alliance with one of them.\n[…]\nHe stared glumly down at his reflection in the mead, thinking with resignation that he was, in all probability, doomed to live and die as unicorn bait.", "type": "quote" }, { "ref": "2010, L. J. Smith, The Vampire Diaries: The Return: Shadow Souls, HarperTeen, →ISBN, page 140:", "text": "He looked at her, startled and a little disappointed. Then he shrugged. \"Still unicorn bait,\" he said.", "type": "quote" } ], "glosses": [ "A virgin." ], "links": [ [ "humorous", "humorous" ], [ "virgin", "virgin" ] ], "raw_glosses": [ "(slang, humorous) A virgin." ], "tags": [ "humorous", "slang", "uncountable" ] } ], "sounds": [ { "audio": "En-au-unicorn bait.ogg", "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/8/8d/En-au-unicorn_bait.ogg/En-au-unicorn_bait.ogg.mp3", "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8d/En-au-unicorn_bait.ogg" } ], "word": "unicorn bait" }
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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 2024-12-15 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-12-04 using wiktextract (8a39820 and 4401a4c). 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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