"yank someone's chain" meaning in All languages combined

See yank someone's chain on Wiktionary

Verb [English]

Audio: En-au-yank someone's chain.ogg Forms: yanks someone's chain [present, singular, third-person], yanking someone's chain [participle, present], yanked someone's chain [participle, past], yanked someone's chain [past]
Head templates: {{en-verb|*}} yank someone's chain (third-person singular simple present yanks someone's chain, present participle yanking someone's chain, simple past and past participle yanked someone's chain)
  1. (informal, idiomatic) To tease someone; to lead someone on; to goad someone into overreacting. Tags: idiomatic, informal
    Sense id: en-yank_someone's_chain-en-verb-VCYypGhl Categories (other): English links with manual fragments, English entries with incorrect language header, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 53 47 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 50 50 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 50 50
  2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see yank, chain. Synonyms: jerk someone's chain, pull someone's chain
    Sense id: en-yank_someone's_chain-en-verb-8TiMzzSM Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 53 47 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 50 50 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 50 50

Inflected forms

Alternative forms

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "yanks someone's chain",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "yanking someone's chain",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "yanked someone's chain",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "yanked someone's chain",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "*"
      },
      "expansion": "yank someone's chain (third-person singular simple present yanks someone's chain, present participle yanking someone's chain, simple past and past participle yanked someone's chain)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English links with manual fragments",
          "parents": [
            "Links with manual fragments",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "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"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "50 50",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "50 50",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "Coordinate term: get someone's goat"
        },
        {
          "text": "Near-synonyms: poke, prod"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2006, James A. McKenna, Beyond Bluffs: Master the Mysteries of Poker, →ISBN, page 198:",
          "text": "So, be careful what you are paying attention to. If it looks like someone is yanking your chain, he or she probably is.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2008, Tom Morrisey, In High Places, →ISBN, page 198:",
          "text": "“For the same reason you were yanking my chain about the double ropes,” I said. “You want to see if I'm going to be any help to you or a total idiot when it comes to this retail thing.”",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2012, Alison Fraser, His Mistress's Secret, →ISBN:",
          "text": "It was so easy to yank his chain, Tiree smirked to herself, as she dialled Les's London flat.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To tease someone; to lead someone on; to goad someone into overreacting."
      ],
      "id": "en-yank_someone's_chain-en-verb-VCYypGhl",
      "links": [
        [
          "tease",
          "tease"
        ],
        [
          "goad",
          "goad"
        ],
        [
          "overreact",
          "overreact"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(informal, idiomatic) To tease someone; to lead someone on; to goad someone into overreacting."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic",
        "informal"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "53 47",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "50 50",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "50 50",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see yank, chain."
      ],
      "id": "en-yank_someone's_chain-en-verb-8TiMzzSM",
      "links": [
        [
          "yank",
          "yank#English"
        ],
        [
          "chain",
          "chain#English"
        ]
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "_dis1": "5 95",
          "word": "jerk someone's chain"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "5 95",
          "word": "pull someone's chain"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "En-au-yank someone's chain.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/4/44/En-au-yank_someone%27s_chain.ogg/En-au-yank_someone%27s_chain.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/44/En-au-yank_someone%27s_chain.ogg"
    }
  ],
  "word": "yank someone's chain"
}
{
  "categories": [
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English verbs",
    "Pages with 1 entry",
    "Pages with entries"
  ],
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "yanks someone's chain",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "yanking someone's chain",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "yanked someone's chain",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "yanked someone's chain",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "*"
      },
      "expansion": "yank someone's chain (third-person singular simple present yanks someone's chain, present participle yanking someone's chain, simple past and past participle yanked someone's chain)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English idioms",
        "English informal terms",
        "English links with manual fragments",
        "English terms with quotations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "Coordinate term: get someone's goat"
        },
        {
          "text": "Near-synonyms: poke, prod"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2006, James A. McKenna, Beyond Bluffs: Master the Mysteries of Poker, →ISBN, page 198:",
          "text": "So, be careful what you are paying attention to. If it looks like someone is yanking your chain, he or she probably is.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2008, Tom Morrisey, In High Places, →ISBN, page 198:",
          "text": "“For the same reason you were yanking my chain about the double ropes,” I said. “You want to see if I'm going to be any help to you or a total idiot when it comes to this retail thing.”",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2012, Alison Fraser, His Mistress's Secret, →ISBN:",
          "text": "It was so easy to yank his chain, Tiree smirked to herself, as she dialled Les's London flat.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To tease someone; to lead someone on; to goad someone into overreacting."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "tease",
          "tease"
        ],
        [
          "goad",
          "goad"
        ],
        [
          "overreact",
          "overreact"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(informal, idiomatic) To tease someone; to lead someone on; to goad someone into overreacting."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic",
        "informal"
      ]
    },
    {
      "glosses": [
        "Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see yank, chain."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "yank",
          "yank#English"
        ],
        [
          "chain",
          "chain#English"
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "En-au-yank someone's chain.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/4/44/En-au-yank_someone%27s_chain.ogg/En-au-yank_someone%27s_chain.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/44/En-au-yank_someone%27s_chain.ogg"
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "jerk someone's chain"
    },
    {
      "word": "pull someone's chain"
    }
  ],
  "word": "yank someone's chain"
}

Download raw JSONL data for yank someone's chain meaning in All languages combined (2.6kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable All languages combined dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-01-25 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-01-20 using wiktextract (c15a5ce and 5c11237). 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.