"wide of the mark" meaning in All languages combined

See wide of the mark on Wiktionary

Adjective [English]

IPA: /ˈwaɪd əv ðə ˈmɑːk/ [Received-Pronunciation], /ˈwaɪd əv ðə ˈmɑɹk/ [General-American] Audio: en-au-wide of the mark.ogg [Australia]
Etymology: From archery and sports jargon. Sometimes corrupted to wide(ly) off the mark (as in far off the mark, way off base). Head templates: {{head|en|adjective|head=wide of the mark}} wide of the mark
  1. Of a projectile: missing the target.
    Sense id: en-wide_of_the_mark-en-adj-lKOyoHGG
  2. (idiomatic) (Very) inaccurate. Tags: idiomatic
    Sense id: en-wide_of_the_mark-en-adj-S~UJNTwR Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 10 90
The following are not (yet) sense-disambiguated
Synonyms: off the mark, off base Related terms: by a long shot, miss the mark

Download JSON data for wide of the mark meaning in All languages combined (5.0kB)

{
  "antonyms": [
    {
      "word": "on the mark"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From archery and sports jargon. Sometimes corrupted to wide(ly) off the mark (as in far off the mark, way off base).",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "adjective",
        "head": "wide of the mark"
      },
      "expansion": "wide of the mark",
      "name": "head"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "adj",
  "related": [
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0",
      "word": "by a long shot"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0",
      "word": "miss the mark"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1920, Arthur M. Winfield [pseudonym; Edward Stratemeyer], “At Tony Duval’s Camp”, in The Rover Boys on a Hunt: Or The Mysterious House in the Woods (The Second Rover Boys Series for Young Americans; 4), New York, N.Y.: Grosset & Dunlap Publishers, →OCLC, page 228",
          "text": "Each had a gun, and the three had been shooting at a number of rabbits. Only Werner had been successful, the others shooting wide of the mark.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1963, Ralph K. Andrist, “Frontier Hothead”, in Andrew Jackson: Soldier and Statesman (American Heritage Junior Library), New York, N.Y.: American Heritage Publishing Co., →OCLC, page 42, column 1",
          "text": "In most duels, both men usually felt that honor was satisfied even when their shots went wide of the mark, and very often both duelists purposely shot into the air or the ground. But this time both men [Andrew Jackson and Charles Dickinson] meant to shoot to kill.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Of a projectile: missing the target."
      ],
      "id": "en-wide_of_the_mark-en-adj-lKOyoHGG",
      "links": [
        [
          "projectile",
          "projectile#Noun"
        ],
        [
          "missing",
          "miss#Verb"
        ],
        [
          "target",
          "target#Noun"
        ]
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "10 90",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "Well, I suppose you could say the weatherman was wide of the mark again then!",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1726, John Stevens, “Pédro”, in A New Dictionary, Spanish and English, and English and Spanish, Much More Copious than Any Other hitherto Extant. Laying down the True Etymology of Words, with Their Various Significations; Terms of Arts and Sciences, Proper Names of Men and Women, Surnames of Families, Titles of Honour, the Geography of Spain and the West Indies, and Principal Plants Growing in those Parts. To which are Added, Vast Numbers of Proverbs, Phrases, and Difficult Expressions, All Literally Explained, with Their Equivalents. [And a parallel title in Spanish.], London: Printed for J[ohn] Darby [et al.], →OCLC, column 1",
          "text": "Prov[erb]. Acertadole ha Pédro a la cogujada, que el rabo lleva tuérto: Peter has hit the lark, for her tail is awry. An expreſſion in deriſion, when a man is wide of the mark.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1776 February, “a Lady”, “A Sentimental Journey”, in The Lady's Magazine; or Entertaining Companion for the Fair Sex, Appropriated Solely to their Use and Enjoyment, London: Printed for G. Robinson, No. 25, Paternoster-Row, →OCLC, page 62, column 2",
          "text": "[O]ur conjectures were like arrows ſhot in the dark—they were wide of the mark—till an old gentleman came into the room, who after affixing his ſpectacles on the ſuperior part of an aquiline noſe, told us—\"he ſmelt a rat!\"",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1966, Michael J[ohn] Arlen, “Living-room War”, in The New Yorker; republished in Living-room War (Television Series), Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press, 1997, pages 7–8",
          "text": "I do know, though, that the cumulative effect of all these three- and five-minute film clips, with their almost unvarying implicit deference to the importance of purely military solutions (despite a few commentators' disclaimers to the contrary), and with their catering (in part unavoidably) to a popular democracy's insistent desire to view even as unbelievably complicated a war as this one in emotional terms (our guys against their guys), is surely wide of the mark, and is bound to provide these millions of people with an excessively simple, emotional and military-oriented view of what is, at best, a mighty unsimple situation.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "(Very) inaccurate."
      ],
      "id": "en-wide_of_the_mark-en-adj-S~UJNTwR",
      "links": [
        [
          "inaccurate",
          "inaccurate"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) (Very) inaccurate."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈwaɪd əv ðə ˈmɑːk/",
      "tags": [
        "Received-Pronunciation"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈwaɪd əv ðə ˈmɑɹk/",
      "tags": [
        "General-American"
      ]
    },
    {
      "audio": "en-au-wide of the mark.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/0/0a/En-au-wide_of_the_mark.ogg/En-au-wide_of_the_mark.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0a/En-au-wide_of_the_mark.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0",
      "word": "off the mark"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0",
      "word": "off base"
    }
  ],
  "word": "wide of the mark"
}
{
  "antonyms": [
    {
      "word": "on the mark"
    }
  ],
  "categories": [
    "English adjectives",
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English terms with IPA pronunciation",
    "English terms with audio links"
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From archery and sports jargon. Sometimes corrupted to wide(ly) off the mark (as in far off the mark, way off base).",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "adjective",
        "head": "wide of the mark"
      },
      "expansion": "wide of the mark",
      "name": "head"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "adj",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "by a long shot"
    },
    {
      "word": "miss the mark"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with quotations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1920, Arthur M. Winfield [pseudonym; Edward Stratemeyer], “At Tony Duval’s Camp”, in The Rover Boys on a Hunt: Or The Mysterious House in the Woods (The Second Rover Boys Series for Young Americans; 4), New York, N.Y.: Grosset & Dunlap Publishers, →OCLC, page 228",
          "text": "Each had a gun, and the three had been shooting at a number of rabbits. Only Werner had been successful, the others shooting wide of the mark.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1963, Ralph K. Andrist, “Frontier Hothead”, in Andrew Jackson: Soldier and Statesman (American Heritage Junior Library), New York, N.Y.: American Heritage Publishing Co., →OCLC, page 42, column 1",
          "text": "In most duels, both men usually felt that honor was satisfied even when their shots went wide of the mark, and very often both duelists purposely shot into the air or the ground. But this time both men [Andrew Jackson and Charles Dickinson] meant to shoot to kill.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Of a projectile: missing the target."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "projectile",
          "projectile#Noun"
        ],
        [
          "missing",
          "miss#Verb"
        ],
        [
          "target",
          "target#Noun"
        ]
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English idioms",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English terms with usage examples"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "Well, I suppose you could say the weatherman was wide of the mark again then!",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1726, John Stevens, “Pédro”, in A New Dictionary, Spanish and English, and English and Spanish, Much More Copious than Any Other hitherto Extant. Laying down the True Etymology of Words, with Their Various Significations; Terms of Arts and Sciences, Proper Names of Men and Women, Surnames of Families, Titles of Honour, the Geography of Spain and the West Indies, and Principal Plants Growing in those Parts. To which are Added, Vast Numbers of Proverbs, Phrases, and Difficult Expressions, All Literally Explained, with Their Equivalents. [And a parallel title in Spanish.], London: Printed for J[ohn] Darby [et al.], →OCLC, column 1",
          "text": "Prov[erb]. Acertadole ha Pédro a la cogujada, que el rabo lleva tuérto: Peter has hit the lark, for her tail is awry. An expreſſion in deriſion, when a man is wide of the mark.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1776 February, “a Lady”, “A Sentimental Journey”, in The Lady's Magazine; or Entertaining Companion for the Fair Sex, Appropriated Solely to their Use and Enjoyment, London: Printed for G. Robinson, No. 25, Paternoster-Row, →OCLC, page 62, column 2",
          "text": "[O]ur conjectures were like arrows ſhot in the dark—they were wide of the mark—till an old gentleman came into the room, who after affixing his ſpectacles on the ſuperior part of an aquiline noſe, told us—\"he ſmelt a rat!\"",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1966, Michael J[ohn] Arlen, “Living-room War”, in The New Yorker; republished in Living-room War (Television Series), Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press, 1997, pages 7–8",
          "text": "I do know, though, that the cumulative effect of all these three- and five-minute film clips, with their almost unvarying implicit deference to the importance of purely military solutions (despite a few commentators' disclaimers to the contrary), and with their catering (in part unavoidably) to a popular democracy's insistent desire to view even as unbelievably complicated a war as this one in emotional terms (our guys against their guys), is surely wide of the mark, and is bound to provide these millions of people with an excessively simple, emotional and military-oriented view of what is, at best, a mighty unsimple situation.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "(Very) inaccurate."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "inaccurate",
          "inaccurate"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) (Very) inaccurate."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈwaɪd əv ðə ˈmɑːk/",
      "tags": [
        "Received-Pronunciation"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈwaɪd əv ðə ˈmɑɹk/",
      "tags": [
        "General-American"
      ]
    },
    {
      "audio": "en-au-wide of the mark.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/0/0a/En-au-wide_of_the_mark.ogg/En-au-wide_of_the_mark.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0a/En-au-wide_of_the_mark.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "off the mark"
    },
    {
      "word": "off base"
    }
  ],
  "word": "wide of the mark"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable All languages combined dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-03 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-05-02 using wiktextract (f4fd8c9 and c9440ce). 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.