See work the refs on Wiktionary
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"ref": "1996, William E. Warren, L. Chapman, Basketball Coach's Survival Guide, →ISBN, 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": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "1998, Rod Hundley, Tom McEachin, Hot Rod Hundley: \"You Gotta Love It, Baby\", →ISBN, 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": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2004, Jack Ramsay, Dr. Jack's Leadership Lessons Learned From a Lifetime in Basketball, →ISBN:",
"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": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2015, Harlan Coben, The Stranger, →ISBN:",
"text": "All coaches work the refs because they understand human nature better than anyone.",
"type": "quote"
}
],
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"To attempt to persuade the referee or other officials to view the players on one's team with a sympathetic bias."
],
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"(sports) To attempt to persuade the referee or other officials to view the players on one's team with a sympathetic bias."
],
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"ref": "2006, James E. Mueller, Towel Snapping the Press, →ISBN:",
"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": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2010, Julie Drew, William Lyons, Lance Svehla, Sound-Bite Saboteurs, →ISBN:",
"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": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2013, Mark Tushnet, In the Balance: Law and Politics on the Roberts Court, →ISBN, 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": "quote"
},
{
"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": "quote"
},
{
"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": "quote"
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"To manipulate the press to view one's candidate favorably and to report negative stories on one's opponent."
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"(politics, by extension) To manipulate the press to view one's candidate favorably and to report negative stories on one's opponent."
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"ref": "1996, William E. Warren, L. Chapman, Basketball Coach's Survival Guide, →ISBN, 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": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "1998, Rod Hundley, Tom McEachin, Hot Rod Hundley: \"You Gotta Love It, Baby\", →ISBN, 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": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2004, Jack Ramsay, Dr. Jack's Leadership Lessons Learned From a Lifetime in Basketball, →ISBN:",
"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": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2015, Harlan Coben, The Stranger, →ISBN:",
"text": "All coaches work the refs because they understand human nature better than anyone.",
"type": "quote"
}
],
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"To attempt to persuade the referee or other officials to view the players on one's team with a sympathetic bias."
],
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[
"sports",
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],
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"(sports) To attempt to persuade the referee or other officials to view the players on one's team with a sympathetic bias."
],
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"lifestyle",
"sports"
]
},
{
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{
"ref": "2006, James E. Mueller, Towel Snapping the Press, →ISBN:",
"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": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2010, Julie Drew, William Lyons, Lance Svehla, Sound-Bite Saboteurs, →ISBN:",
"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": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2013, Mark Tushnet, In the Balance: Law and Politics on the Roberts Court, →ISBN, 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": "quote"
},
{
"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": "quote"
},
{
"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": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"To manipulate the press to view one's candidate favorably and to report negative stories on one's opponent."
],
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[
"politics",
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],
[
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"(politics, by extension) To manipulate the press to view one's candidate favorably and to report negative stories on one's opponent."
],
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"broadly"
],
"topics": [
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}
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"word": "work the refs"
}
Download raw JSONL data for work the refs meaning in All languages combined (4.4kB)
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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