"watch the world go by" meaning in All languages combined

See watch the world go by on Wiktionary

Verb [English]

Audio: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-watch the world go by.wav Forms: watches the world go by [present, singular, third-person], watching the world go by [participle, present], watched the world go by [participle, past], watched the world go by [past]
Head templates: {{en-verb|*}} watch the world go by (third-person singular simple present watches the world go by, present participle watching the world go by, simple past and past participle watched the world go by)
  1. (UK, idiomatic) To pause and remain still whilst doing nothing but surveying the environment around oneself. Tags: UK, idiomatic
    Sense id: en-watch_the_world_go_by-en-verb-AK7chI0S Categories (other): British English, English entries with incorrect language header, English predicates, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries

Inflected forms

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "watches the world go by",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "watching the world go by",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "watched the world go by",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "watched the world go by",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "*"
      },
      "expansion": "watch the world go by (third-person singular simple present watches the world go by, present participle watching the world go by, simple past and past participle watched the world go by)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "British English",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English predicates",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "I think I'll just sit under this tree and watch the world go by.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2022 November 30, Paul Bigland, “Destination Oban: a Sunday in Scotland”, in RAIL, number 971, page 75:",
          "text": "Watching the world go by is so much fun that I have to tear myself away to catch my next service - LNER's 'Highland Chieftain' worked by a bi-mode Class 800 Azuma, [...].",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To pause and remain still whilst doing nothing but surveying the environment around oneself."
      ],
      "id": "en-watch_the_world_go_by-en-verb-AK7chI0S",
      "links": [
        [
          "pause",
          "pause"
        ],
        [
          "remain",
          "remain"
        ],
        [
          "still",
          "still"
        ],
        [
          "survey",
          "survey"
        ],
        [
          "environment",
          "environment"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(UK, idiomatic) To pause and remain still whilst doing nothing but surveying the environment around oneself."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "UK",
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-watch the world go by.wav",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/0/0a/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Flame%2C_not_lame-watch_the_world_go_by.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Flame%2C_not_lame-watch_the_world_go_by.wav.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/0/0a/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Flame%2C_not_lame-watch_the_world_go_by.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Flame%2C_not_lame-watch_the_world_go_by.wav.ogg"
    }
  ],
  "word": "watch the world go by"
}
{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "watches the world go by",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "watching the world go by",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "watched the world go by",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "watched the world go by",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "*"
      },
      "expansion": "watch the world go by (third-person singular simple present watches the world go by, present participle watching the world go by, simple past and past participle watched the world go by)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "British English",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English idioms",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English predicates",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English terms with usage examples",
        "English verbs",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "I think I'll just sit under this tree and watch the world go by.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2022 November 30, Paul Bigland, “Destination Oban: a Sunday in Scotland”, in RAIL, number 971, page 75:",
          "text": "Watching the world go by is so much fun that I have to tear myself away to catch my next service - LNER's 'Highland Chieftain' worked by a bi-mode Class 800 Azuma, [...].",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To pause and remain still whilst doing nothing but surveying the environment around oneself."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "pause",
          "pause"
        ],
        [
          "remain",
          "remain"
        ],
        [
          "still",
          "still"
        ],
        [
          "survey",
          "survey"
        ],
        [
          "environment",
          "environment"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(UK, idiomatic) To pause and remain still whilst doing nothing but surveying the environment around oneself."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "UK",
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-watch the world go by.wav",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/0/0a/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Flame%2C_not_lame-watch_the_world_go_by.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Flame%2C_not_lame-watch_the_world_go_by.wav.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/0/0a/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Flame%2C_not_lame-watch_the_world_go_by.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Flame%2C_not_lame-watch_the_world_go_by.wav.ogg"
    }
  ],
  "word": "watch the world go by"
}

Download raw JSONL data for watch the world go by 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 2025-01-31 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.