See work the refs on Wiktionary
Download JSON data for work the refs meaning in All languages combined (4.9kB)
{
"forms": [
{
"form": "works the refs",
"tags": [
"present",
"singular",
"third-person"
]
},
{
"form": "working the refs",
"tags": [
"participle",
"present"
]
},
{
"form": "worked the refs",
"tags": [
"participle",
"past"
]
},
{
"form": "worked the refs",
"tags": [
"past"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "*"
},
"expansion": "work the refs (third-person singular simple present works the refs, present participle working the refs, simple past and past participle worked the refs)",
"name": "en-verb"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "verb",
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
{
"kind": "topical",
"langcode": "en",
"name": "Sports",
"orig": "en:Sports",
"parents": [
"Human activity",
"Human behaviour",
"Human",
"All topics",
"Fundamental"
],
"source": "w"
},
{
"_dis": "54 46",
"kind": "other",
"name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
"parents": [
"Entries with incorrect language header",
"Entry maintenance"
],
"source": "w+disamb"
}
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1996, William E. Warren, L. Chapman, Basketball Coach's Survival Guide, page 233",
"text": "You should also work the refs during pregame warmups, telling them how hard your players work on blocking out in practice and hope that the refs give your players a fair chance.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "1998, Rod Hundley, Tom McEachin, Hot Rod Hundley: \"You Gotta Love It, Baby\", page 241",
"text": "He worked the refs better than anyone I've ever seen. He was a great bench coach, too. He had a great feel for playing the right people at the right time.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2004, Jack Ramsay, Dr. Jack's Leadership Lessons Learned From a Lifetime in Basketball",
"text": "I don't remember much about the game, who won or lost, but what I do remember was Jack, his intensity and the fierce, passionate way he worked the refs.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2015, Harlan Coben, The Stranger",
"text": "All coaches work the refs because they understand human nature better than anyone.",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"To attempt to persuade the referee or other officials to view the players on one's team with a sympathetic bias."
],
"id": "en-work_the_refs-en-verb-5bASsZCo",
"links": [
[
"sports",
"sports"
],
[
"persuade",
"persuade"
],
[
"referee",
"referee"
],
[
"official",
"official"
],
[
"player",
"player"
],
[
"team",
"team"
],
[
"sympathetic",
"sympathetic"
],
[
"bias",
"bias"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(sports) To attempt to persuade the referee or other officials to view the players on one's team with a sympathetic bias."
],
"topics": [
"hobbies",
"lifestyle",
"sports"
]
},
{
"categories": [
{
"kind": "topical",
"langcode": "en",
"name": "Politics",
"orig": "en:Politics",
"parents": [
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"All topics",
"Fundamental"
],
"source": "w"
},
{
"_dis": "54 46",
"kind": "other",
"name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
"parents": [
"Entries with incorrect language header",
"Entry maintenance"
],
"source": "w+disamb"
}
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "2006, James E. Mueller, Towel Snapping the Press",
"text": "Slater said that Bush would charm reporters in an attempt to \"work the refs\" much like a basketball coach will try to cajole and hassle referees in order to influence calls.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2010, Julie Drew, William Lyons, Lance Svehla, Sound-Bite Saboteurs",
"text": "Today this pressure is better funded and more coordinated on the Right, making their efforts to work the refs, to script our political spectacles, more powerful.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2013, Mark Tushnet, In the Balance: Law and Politics on the Roberts Court, page 28",
"text": "In a sense, for conservatives the “changed his mind” story is a continuation of their efforts to work the refs, this time treating the American people as the referees in a contest over respect for the Supreme Court.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2016 September 26, David Goldstein, Anita Kumar, “Trump is still Trump in first debate and Clinton doesn’t take the bait”, in Miami Herald",
"text": "Both candidates worked the refs ahead of the game.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2016 October 31, Isaac Chotiner, “Donald Trump Is on the Ballot Next Week. Why Are We Talking About Emails?”, in Slate Magazine",
"text": "ThinkProgress’ Judd Legum suggests Comey was overcorrecting in response to a monthslong assault by the GOP on the FBI’s authority. “Republicans worked the refs at the FBI,” Legum tweeted, “and it worked.”",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"To manipulate the press to view one's candidate favorably and to report negative stories on one's opponent."
],
"id": "en-work_the_refs-en-verb-BKmyHGv8",
"links": [
[
"politics",
"politics"
],
[
"manipulate",
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],
[
"press",
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],
[
"candidate",
"candidate"
],
[
"favorably",
"favorable"
],
[
"negative",
"negative"
],
[
"opponent",
"opponent"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(politics, by extension) To manipulate the press to view one's candidate favorably and to report negative stories on one's opponent."
],
"tags": [
"broadly"
],
"topics": [
"government",
"politics"
]
}
],
"word": "work the refs"
}
{
"categories": [
"English entries with incorrect language header",
"English lemmas",
"English multiword terms",
"English verbs"
],
"forms": [
{
"form": "works the refs",
"tags": [
"present",
"singular",
"third-person"
]
},
{
"form": "working the refs",
"tags": [
"participle",
"present"
]
},
{
"form": "worked the refs",
"tags": [
"participle",
"past"
]
},
{
"form": "worked the refs",
"tags": [
"past"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "*"
},
"expansion": "work the refs (third-person singular simple present works the refs, present participle working the refs, simple past and past participle worked the refs)",
"name": "en-verb"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "verb",
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
"English terms with quotations",
"en:Sports"
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1996, William E. Warren, L. Chapman, Basketball Coach's Survival Guide, page 233",
"text": "You should also work the refs during pregame warmups, telling them how hard your players work on blocking out in practice and hope that the refs give your players a fair chance.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "1998, Rod Hundley, Tom McEachin, Hot Rod Hundley: \"You Gotta Love It, Baby\", page 241",
"text": "He worked the refs better than anyone I've ever seen. He was a great bench coach, too. He had a great feel for playing the right people at the right time.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2004, Jack Ramsay, Dr. Jack's Leadership Lessons Learned From a Lifetime in Basketball",
"text": "I don't remember much about the game, who won or lost, but what I do remember was Jack, his intensity and the fierce, passionate way he worked the refs.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2015, Harlan Coben, The Stranger",
"text": "All coaches work the refs because they understand human nature better than anyone.",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"To attempt to persuade the referee or other officials to view the players on one's team with a sympathetic bias."
],
"links": [
[
"sports",
"sports"
],
[
"persuade",
"persuade"
],
[
"referee",
"referee"
],
[
"official",
"official"
],
[
"player",
"player"
],
[
"team",
"team"
],
[
"sympathetic",
"sympathetic"
],
[
"bias",
"bias"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(sports) To attempt to persuade the referee or other officials to view the players on one's team with a sympathetic bias."
],
"topics": [
"hobbies",
"lifestyle",
"sports"
]
},
{
"categories": [
"English terms with quotations",
"en:Politics"
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "2006, James E. Mueller, Towel Snapping the Press",
"text": "Slater said that Bush would charm reporters in an attempt to \"work the refs\" much like a basketball coach will try to cajole and hassle referees in order to influence calls.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2010, Julie Drew, William Lyons, Lance Svehla, Sound-Bite Saboteurs",
"text": "Today this pressure is better funded and more coordinated on the Right, making their efforts to work the refs, to script our political spectacles, more powerful.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2013, Mark Tushnet, In the Balance: Law and Politics on the Roberts Court, page 28",
"text": "In a sense, for conservatives the “changed his mind” story is a continuation of their efforts to work the refs, this time treating the American people as the referees in a contest over respect for the Supreme Court.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2016 September 26, David Goldstein, Anita Kumar, “Trump is still Trump in first debate and Clinton doesn’t take the bait”, in Miami Herald",
"text": "Both candidates worked the refs ahead of the game.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2016 October 31, Isaac Chotiner, “Donald Trump Is on the Ballot Next Week. Why Are We Talking About Emails?”, in Slate Magazine",
"text": "ThinkProgress’ Judd Legum suggests Comey was overcorrecting in response to a monthslong assault by the GOP on the FBI’s authority. “Republicans worked the refs at the FBI,” Legum tweeted, “and it worked.”",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"To manipulate the press to view one's candidate favorably and to report negative stories on one's opponent."
],
"links": [
[
"politics",
"politics"
],
[
"manipulate",
"manipulate"
],
[
"press",
"press"
],
[
"candidate",
"candidate"
],
[
"favorably",
"favorable"
],
[
"negative",
"negative"
],
[
"opponent",
"opponent"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(politics, by extension) To manipulate the press to view one's candidate favorably and to report negative stories on one's opponent."
],
"tags": [
"broadly"
],
"topics": [
"government",
"politics"
]
}
],
"word": "work the refs"
}
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.
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