"work the oracle" meaning in All languages combined

See work the oracle on Wiktionary

Verb [English]

Forms: works the oracle [present, singular, third-person], working the oracle [participle, present], worked the oracle [participle, past], worked the oracle [past]
Head templates: {{en-verb|*}} work the oracle (third-person singular simple present works the oracle, present participle working the oracle, simple past and past participle worked the oracle)
  1. (dated, informal) To manipulate circumstances to one's personal advantage. Tags: dated, informal
    Sense id: en-work_the_oracle-en-verb-sBdU--Rm Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 53 47
  2. (UK, law enforcement slang) To fabricate a suspect's verbal statement. Tags: UK, slang Categories (topical): Law enforcement
    Sense id: en-work_the_oracle-en-verb-uZKMSrLv Categories (other): British English, English entries with incorrect language header Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 53 47 Topics: government, law-enforcement

Inflected forms

Download JSON data for work the oracle meaning in All languages combined (3.4kB)

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "works the oracle",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "working the oracle",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "worked the oracle",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "worked the oracle",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "*"
      },
      "expansion": "work the oracle (third-person singular simple present works the oracle, present participle working the oracle, simple past and past participle worked the oracle)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "53 47",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1901, Henry James, The Papers",
          "text": "You've thought there were some high souls that didn't do it—that wouldn't, I mean, to work the oracle, lift a little finger of their own. But, Lord bless you, give them a chance—you'll find some of the greatest the greediest.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1906, John Strange Winter, A Simple Gentleman",
          "text": "\"You must work the oracle.\" said Lettice smiling at him. / And John Valentine did work the oracle to such good purpose that when, two days later, the brother and sister went to London for ten days, John Valentine went with them.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1910, Walter Arnold Mursell, Two on a Tour",
          "text": "It is his glowing eye and ingenuous smile that works the oracle, I fancy.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1917, C. J. Dennis, The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke",
          "text": "O' course we worked the oricle; you bet! / But, 'Struth, I ain't recovered frum it yet!",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To manipulate circumstances to one's personal advantage."
      ],
      "id": "en-work_the_oracle-en-verb-sBdU--Rm",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(dated, informal) To manipulate circumstances to one's personal advantage."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "dated",
        "informal"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "British English",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Law enforcement",
          "orig": "en:Law enforcement",
          "parents": [
            "Crime prevention",
            "Emergency services",
            "Law",
            "Crime",
            "Public safety",
            "Justice",
            "Criminal law",
            "Society",
            "Public administration",
            "Security",
            "All topics",
            "Government",
            "Fundamental",
            "Politics"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "53 47",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2006, Thomas Barker, Police Ethics: Crisis in Law Enforcement, page 90",
          "text": "Holdaway reports that procedural rules are often considered irrelevant by the British police as they go about their daily duties. The occupational culture of the British police condones the use of “verbals” or “working the oracle.”",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To fabricate a suspect's verbal statement."
      ],
      "id": "en-work_the_oracle-en-verb-uZKMSrLv",
      "links": [
        [
          "law enforcement",
          "law enforcement"
        ],
        [
          "fabricate",
          "fabricate"
        ],
        [
          "suspect",
          "suspect"
        ],
        [
          "verbal",
          "verbal"
        ],
        [
          "statement",
          "statement"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(UK, law enforcement slang) To fabricate a suspect's verbal statement."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "UK",
        "slang"
      ],
      "topics": [
        "government",
        "law-enforcement"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "work the oracle"
}
{
  "categories": [
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English verbs"
  ],
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "works the oracle",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "working the oracle",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "worked the oracle",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "worked the oracle",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "*"
      },
      "expansion": "work the oracle (third-person singular simple present works the oracle, present participle working the oracle, simple past and past participle worked the oracle)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English dated terms",
        "English informal terms",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "Quotation templates to be cleaned"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1901, Henry James, The Papers",
          "text": "You've thought there were some high souls that didn't do it—that wouldn't, I mean, to work the oracle, lift a little finger of their own. But, Lord bless you, give them a chance—you'll find some of the greatest the greediest.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1906, John Strange Winter, A Simple Gentleman",
          "text": "\"You must work the oracle.\" said Lettice smiling at him. / And John Valentine did work the oracle to such good purpose that when, two days later, the brother and sister went to London for ten days, John Valentine went with them.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1910, Walter Arnold Mursell, Two on a Tour",
          "text": "It is his glowing eye and ingenuous smile that works the oracle, I fancy.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1917, C. J. Dennis, The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke",
          "text": "O' course we worked the oricle; you bet! / But, 'Struth, I ain't recovered frum it yet!",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To manipulate circumstances to one's personal advantage."
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(dated, informal) To manipulate circumstances to one's personal advantage."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "dated",
        "informal"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "British English",
        "English slang",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "Quotation templates to be cleaned",
        "en:Law enforcement"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2006, Thomas Barker, Police Ethics: Crisis in Law Enforcement, page 90",
          "text": "Holdaway reports that procedural rules are often considered irrelevant by the British police as they go about their daily duties. The occupational culture of the British police condones the use of “verbals” or “working the oracle.”",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To fabricate a suspect's verbal statement."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "law enforcement",
          "law enforcement"
        ],
        [
          "fabricate",
          "fabricate"
        ],
        [
          "suspect",
          "suspect"
        ],
        [
          "verbal",
          "verbal"
        ],
        [
          "statement",
          "statement"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(UK, law enforcement slang) To fabricate a suspect's verbal statement."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "UK",
        "slang"
      ],
      "topics": [
        "government",
        "law-enforcement"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "work the oracle"
}

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.