"worm turns" meaning in All languages combined

See worm turns on Wiktionary

Phrase [English]

Audio: En-au-worm turns.ogg [Australia]
Head templates: {{head|en|phrase}} worm turns
  1. (idiomatic, usually preceded by the) Circumstances change so that a previously disadvantaged party gains the advantage, or vice-versa. Tags: idiomatic Related terms: even a worm will turn (english: proverb), turnabout
    Sense id: en-worm_turns-en-phrase-G4vEdaou Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header

Inflected forms

Download JSON data for worm turns meaning in All languages combined (2.3kB)

{
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "phrase"
      },
      "expansion": "worm turns",
      "name": "head"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "phrase",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1914, E. Phillips Oppenheim, chapter 22, in The Vanished Messenger",
          "text": "\"I've waited on you hand and foot, done dirty work for you, put up with your ill-humours and your tyranny, and never grumbled. But there is a limit! You've made a poor sort of creature of me, but even the worm turns, you know.\"",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1982 December 11, Frances Russell, “Economic performance buoys Pawley’s position”, in The Vancouver Sun (The Weekend Sun), Vancouver, BC, page A6",
          "text": "However, the evidence to date in the new session indicates the worm may have turned. The government has become more seasoned and confident of its political skills.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2002 April 21, Vicki Vasilopoulos, “Word's Out. New Jersey's In.”, in New York Times, retrieved 2016-12-13",
          "text": "\"New Jersey used to be the armpit of the universe,\" Mr. Rockland said. \"Well, the worm turns. And I think anything that's down so long eventually is going come up.\"",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Circumstances change so that a previously disadvantaged party gains the advantage, or vice-versa."
      ],
      "id": "en-worm_turns-en-phrase-G4vEdaou",
      "links": [
        [
          "the",
          "the#English"
        ],
        [
          "Circumstance",
          "circumstance"
        ],
        [
          "disadvantaged",
          "disadvantaged"
        ],
        [
          "advantage",
          "advantage"
        ],
        [
          "vice-versa",
          "vice-versa"
        ]
      ],
      "qualifier": "usually preceded by the",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic, usually preceded by the) Circumstances change so that a previously disadvantaged party gains the advantage, or vice-versa."
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "english": "proverb",
          "word": "even a worm will turn"
        },
        {
          "word": "turnabout"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "En-au-worm turns.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/d/dc/En-au-worm_turns.ogg/En-au-worm_turns.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/dc/En-au-worm_turns.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "word": "worm turns"
}
{
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "phrase"
      },
      "expansion": "worm turns",
      "name": "head"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "phrase",
  "related": [
    {
      "english": "proverb",
      "word": "even a worm will turn"
    },
    {
      "word": "turnabout"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English idioms",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English phrases",
        "English terms with audio links",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "Quotation templates to be cleaned"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1914, E. Phillips Oppenheim, chapter 22, in The Vanished Messenger",
          "text": "\"I've waited on you hand and foot, done dirty work for you, put up with your ill-humours and your tyranny, and never grumbled. But there is a limit! You've made a poor sort of creature of me, but even the worm turns, you know.\"",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1982 December 11, Frances Russell, “Economic performance buoys Pawley’s position”, in The Vancouver Sun (The Weekend Sun), Vancouver, BC, page A6",
          "text": "However, the evidence to date in the new session indicates the worm may have turned. The government has become more seasoned and confident of its political skills.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2002 April 21, Vicki Vasilopoulos, “Word's Out. New Jersey's In.”, in New York Times, retrieved 2016-12-13",
          "text": "\"New Jersey used to be the armpit of the universe,\" Mr. Rockland said. \"Well, the worm turns. And I think anything that's down so long eventually is going come up.\"",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Circumstances change so that a previously disadvantaged party gains the advantage, or vice-versa."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "the",
          "the#English"
        ],
        [
          "Circumstance",
          "circumstance"
        ],
        [
          "disadvantaged",
          "disadvantaged"
        ],
        [
          "advantage",
          "advantage"
        ],
        [
          "vice-versa",
          "vice-versa"
        ]
      ],
      "qualifier": "usually preceded by the",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic, usually preceded by the) Circumstances change so that a previously disadvantaged party gains the advantage, or vice-versa."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "En-au-worm turns.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/d/dc/En-au-worm_turns.ogg/En-au-worm_turns.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/dc/En-au-worm_turns.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "word": "worm turns"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable All languages combined dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-06 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.