"Baker Street Irregular" meaning in English

See Baker Street Irregular in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Forms: Baker Street Irregulars [plural]
Etymology: From the Sherlock Holmes stories by Arthur Conan Doyle, in which they were a group of street boys who assisted Holmes (who lived on Baker Street, London) with his investigations. Head templates: {{en-noun|head=Baker Street Irregular}} Baker Street Irregular (plural Baker Street Irregulars)
  1. A casual assistant, especially in the context of detection or solving crime.
    Sense id: en-Baker_Street_Irregular-en-noun-EdcMM3fy
  2. A fan of Sherlock Holmes stories.
    Sense id: en-Baker_Street_Irregular-en-noun-ZXNCMgdQ Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries, Sherlock Holmes Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 34 66 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 19 81 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 19 81 Disambiguation of Sherlock Holmes: 2 98

Inflected forms

{
  "etymology_text": "From the Sherlock Holmes stories by Arthur Conan Doyle, in which they were a group of street boys who assisted Holmes (who lived on Baker Street, London) with his investigations.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "Baker Street Irregulars",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "head": "Baker Street Irregular"
      },
      "expansion": "Baker Street Irregular (plural Baker Street Irregulars)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [],
      "examples": [
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              70,
              92
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "2005, Lloyd Davis, Campus Delicti: A Dan Quarrier Mystery:",
          "text": "I'd be glad to hear anything you might dig up. You could be a kind of Baker Street Irregular yourself. But please understand, the way it stands now the Harkness death is classified as a suicide or accident.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              109,
              131
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "2010, Michael Innes, Appleby's Other Story:",
          "text": "'And I don't understand your position at all. It seems quite irregular.'\n'So it is, madam. I may be called a Baker Street Irregular. […]'",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              191,
              213
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "2012, Jeanne Toomey, Assignment Homicide: Behind the Headlines, page 77:",
          "text": "Though I truly loved them and the work they did, rescuing thousands of animals yearly, yet the roar of the presses and the fast pace of a whirlwind business held me captive. […] I remained a Baker Street irregular, still joining the first and last popular breakfast couple of New York in rescue efforts, appearing often as a guest on the program, forever their devoted admirer.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              24,
              46
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "2018, Amanda Cross, In the Last Analysis:",
          "text": "\"No, Jerry is a sort of Baker Street Irregular, and he's going to be my nephew.\"\n\"You can't mean you've hired a little boy! Really, Kate...\"",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A casual assistant, especially in the context of detection or solving crime."
      ],
      "id": "en-Baker_Street_Irregular-en-noun-EdcMM3fy",
      "links": [
        [
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        ],
        [
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        [
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    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "34 66",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "19 81",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "19 81",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
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          "_dis": "2 98",
          "kind": "other",
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          "name": "Sherlock Holmes",
          "orig": "en:Sherlock Holmes",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
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      "examples": [
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          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              58,
              80
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "1952 December 29, Life, page 62:",
          "text": "This hope reflected Starrett's tongue-in-cheek faith as a Baker Street Irregular that Sherlock Holmes actually lived and that the stories about him were all factual, written by the faithful Doctor Watson from voluminous records.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              136,
              159
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "2021 October 14, Anthony Boucher, The Case of the Baker Street Irregulars, Hachette UK, →ISBN:",
          "text": "On this night, in 1934 New York, a few enthusiasts met to celebrate the birthday of the man they most respected, admired and loved. The Baker Street Irregulars were officially born.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A fan of Sherlock Holmes stories."
      ],
      "id": "en-Baker_Street_Irregular-en-noun-ZXNCMgdQ",
      "links": [
        [
          "fan",
          "fan"
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "wikipedia": [
    "Sherlock Holmes"
  ],
  "word": "Baker Street Irregular"
}
{
  "categories": [
    "English countable nouns",
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English nouns",
    "Pages with 1 entry",
    "Pages with entries",
    "en:Sherlock Holmes"
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From the Sherlock Holmes stories by Arthur Conan Doyle, in which they were a group of street boys who assisted Holmes (who lived on Baker Street, London) with his investigations.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "Baker Street Irregulars",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "head": "Baker Street Irregular"
      },
      "expansion": "Baker Street Irregular (plural Baker Street Irregulars)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with quotations",
        "Quotation templates to be cleaned"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              70,
              92
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "2005, Lloyd Davis, Campus Delicti: A Dan Quarrier Mystery:",
          "text": "I'd be glad to hear anything you might dig up. You could be a kind of Baker Street Irregular yourself. But please understand, the way it stands now the Harkness death is classified as a suicide or accident.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              109,
              131
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "2010, Michael Innes, Appleby's Other Story:",
          "text": "'And I don't understand your position at all. It seems quite irregular.'\n'So it is, madam. I may be called a Baker Street Irregular. […]'",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              191,
              213
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "2012, Jeanne Toomey, Assignment Homicide: Behind the Headlines, page 77:",
          "text": "Though I truly loved them and the work they did, rescuing thousands of animals yearly, yet the roar of the presses and the fast pace of a whirlwind business held me captive. […] I remained a Baker Street irregular, still joining the first and last popular breakfast couple of New York in rescue efforts, appearing often as a guest on the program, forever their devoted admirer.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              24,
              46
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "2018, Amanda Cross, In the Last Analysis:",
          "text": "\"No, Jerry is a sort of Baker Street Irregular, and he's going to be my nephew.\"\n\"You can't mean you've hired a little boy! Really, Kate...\"",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A casual assistant, especially in the context of detection or solving crime."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "casual",
          "casual"
        ],
        [
          "assistant",
          "assistant"
        ],
        [
          "detection",
          "detection"
        ],
        [
          "crime",
          "crime"
        ]
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with quotations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              58,
              80
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "1952 December 29, Life, page 62:",
          "text": "This hope reflected Starrett's tongue-in-cheek faith as a Baker Street Irregular that Sherlock Holmes actually lived and that the stories about him were all factual, written by the faithful Doctor Watson from voluminous records.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              136,
              159
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "2021 October 14, Anthony Boucher, The Case of the Baker Street Irregulars, Hachette UK, →ISBN:",
          "text": "On this night, in 1934 New York, a few enthusiasts met to celebrate the birthday of the man they most respected, admired and loved. The Baker Street Irregulars were officially born.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A fan of Sherlock Holmes stories."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "fan",
          "fan"
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "wikipedia": [
    "Sherlock Holmes"
  ],
  "word": "Baker Street Irregular"
}

Download raw JSONL data for Baker Street Irregular meaning in English (3.2kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2026-02-01 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2026-01-01 using wiktextract (f492ef9 and 9905b1f). 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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