See Rosie Lee in All languages combined, or Wiktionary
{
"etymology_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "Rosie",
"3": "Lee",
"t1": "female name",
"t2": "surname, or female or male given name"
},
"expansion": "Rosie (“female name”) + Lee (“surname, or female or male given name”)",
"name": "compound"
}
],
"etymology_text": "From Rosie (“female name”) + Lee (“surname, or female or male given name”), chosen for its rhyme with tea.",
"forms": [
{
"form": "Rosie Lees",
"tags": [
"plural"
]
},
{
"form": "Rosie Lea",
"tags": [
"alternative"
]
},
{
"form": "rosie lee",
"tags": [
"alternative"
]
},
{
"form": "Rosey Lee",
"tags": [
"alternative"
]
},
{
"form": "Rosy Lee",
"tags": [
"alternative"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "-",
"2": "+"
},
"expansion": "Rosie Lee (usually uncountable, plural Rosie Lees)",
"name": "en-noun"
}
],
"hyphenation": [
"Ros‧ie"
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "noun",
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
"parents": [
"Entries with incorrect language header",
"Entry maintenance"
],
"source": "w"
},
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "English links with manual fragments",
"parents": [
"Links with manual fragments",
"Entry maintenance"
],
"source": "w"
},
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "Pages with 1 entry",
"parents": [],
"source": "w"
},
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "Pages with entries",
"parents": [],
"source": "w"
},
{
"kind": "topical",
"langcode": "en",
"name": "Tea",
"orig": "en:Tea",
"parents": [
"Beverages",
"Drinking",
"Food and drink",
"Liquids",
"Human behaviour",
"All topics",
"Matter",
"Human",
"Fundamental",
"Chemistry",
"Nature",
"Sciences"
],
"source": "w"
}
],
"examples": [
{
"text": "I’ll put the kettle on and make us a cup of Rosie Lee.",
"type": "example"
},
{
"ref": "1929 July, J[ohn] B[oynton] Priestley, “Mr. Oakroyd on t’Road”, in The Good Companions, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.; London: Harper & Brothers, published 1929, →OCLC, book 1, section III, page 133:",
"text": "\"'Ow about a drop o' Rosie Lee?\" said Mr. Joby Jackson. He was very found of this queer rhyming slang, most of which must be omitted from any record of his talk because it is incomprehensible to ordinary people. Even Mr. Oakroyd, […] was sometimes puzzled. But he was not bewildered, of course, by any mention of the famous Rosie, and he was more than ready for a drink of tea.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "1944 February 24, “‘They march better on tea’”, in H. R. Tompkins, editor, The Stirling News-Argus, volume 64, number 26, Stirling, Ont.: H. R. Tompkins, →OCLC, page 5, column 3:",
"text": "Commandos march better on tea than on water. This fact has been demonstrated by an official test recently carried out in Great Britain. […] The \"water platoons\" made good use of their water bottles, but the \"tea platoon\" was the only one to finish the course intact. Which only goes to show that there must be something in the soldier's traditional liking for \"a cup of rosie lee.\"",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "1973, May Hobbs, “The Arts and Crafts Department”, in Born to Struggle, 1st American edition, Plainfield, Vt.: Daughters, Inc., published 1975, →ISBN, page 133:",
"text": "'Sit in here a minute,' he says to them. 'I'll go and make the Rosy Lee.' When he had made the tea he brings it in, gets out the cards, and they start to play, carrying on until it is about half past three.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2007 July, Rhys Bowen [pseudonym; Janet Quin-Harkin], Her Royal Spyness, New York, N.Y.: Berkley Prime Crime, Berkley Books, published 2008, →ISBN, page 203:",
"text": "“[…] Nice cup of Rosie Lee?” he asked, using the Cockney tradition of rhyming slang.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2008, Alf Townsend, “Return to War-torn London”, in Blitz Boy: An Evacuee’s Story, Osney Mead, Oxford, Oxfordshire: ISIS Publishing, published 2009, →ISBN, pages 101–102:",
"text": "They all nodded sagely in agreement and carried on puffing away on their fags and drinking their Rosie Lees.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2016, Chris Graham, with Wendy Holden, “Spring 2015: Brize Norton, Oxfordshire, England”, in Five Minutes of Amazing: My Journey Through Dementia, London: Sphere, →ISBN, page 10:",
"text": "Seated at our map-covered dining table, Vicks and I drank umpteen cups of Rosy Lee as we worked out the best route to take me across seven provinces in Canada and through twenty-six US states, following the coastline as much as possible.",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"Synonym of tea (“(uncountable) a drink made by infusing dried leaves or buds of the tea plant (Camellia sinensis) in hot water; (countable) a cup of this drink”)"
],
"id": "en-Rosie_Lee-en-noun-WMDR4uD8",
"links": [
[
"Cockney rhyming slang",
"Cockney rhyming slang"
],
[
"military",
"military"
],
[
"slang",
"slang"
],
[
"tea",
"tea#Noun"
],
[
"drink",
"drink#Noun"
],
[
"made",
"make#Verb"
],
[
"infusing",
"infuse"
],
[
"dried",
"dried#Adjective"
],
[
"leaves",
"leaf#Noun"
],
[
"buds",
"bud#Noun"
],
[
"tea plant",
"tea plant"
],
[
"Camellia sinensis",
"Camellia sinensis#Translingual"
],
[
"hot",
"hot#Adjective"
],
[
"water",
"water#Noun"
],
[
"cup",
"cup#Noun"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(Cockney rhyming slang, originally military slang) Synonym of tea (“(uncountable) a drink made by infusing dried leaves or buds of the tea plant (Camellia sinensis) in hot water; (countable) a cup of this drink”)"
],
"synonyms": [
{
"word": "Rosie"
},
{
"word": "Rosy"
},
{
"word": "tea"
},
{
"extra": "(“(uncountable) a drink made by infusing dried leaves or buds of the tea plant (Camellia sinensis) in hot water; (countable) a cup of this drink”)",
"tags": [
"synonym",
"synonym-of"
],
"word": "tea"
}
],
"tags": [
"Cockney",
"slang",
"uncountable",
"usually"
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"ipa": "/ˌɹəʊzi ˈliː/",
"tags": [
"Received-Pronunciation"
]
},
{
"ipa": "/ˌɹoʊzi ˈli/",
"tags": [
"General-American"
]
},
{
"audio": "LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-Rosie Lee.wav",
"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/6/61/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Flame%2C_not_lame-Rosie_Lee.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Flame%2C_not_lame-Rosie_Lee.wav.mp3",
"ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/6/61/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Flame%2C_not_lame-Rosie_Lee.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Flame%2C_not_lame-Rosie_Lee.wav.ogg"
},
{
"rhymes": "-iː"
}
],
"word": "Rosie Lee"
}
{
"etymology_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "Rosie",
"3": "Lee",
"t1": "female name",
"t2": "surname, or female or male given name"
},
"expansion": "Rosie (“female name”) + Lee (“surname, or female or male given name”)",
"name": "compound"
}
],
"etymology_text": "From Rosie (“female name”) + Lee (“surname, or female or male given name”), chosen for its rhyme with tea.",
"forms": [
{
"form": "Rosie Lees",
"tags": [
"plural"
]
},
{
"form": "Rosie Lea",
"tags": [
"alternative"
]
},
{
"form": "rosie lee",
"tags": [
"alternative"
]
},
{
"form": "Rosey Lee",
"tags": [
"alternative"
]
},
{
"form": "Rosy Lee",
"tags": [
"alternative"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "-",
"2": "+"
},
"expansion": "Rosie Lee (usually uncountable, plural Rosie Lees)",
"name": "en-noun"
}
],
"hyphenation": [
"Ros‧ie"
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "noun",
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
"Cockney rhyming slang",
"English compound terms",
"English countable nouns",
"English entries with incorrect language header",
"English eponyms",
"English lemmas",
"English links with manual fragments",
"English military slang",
"English multiword terms",
"English noun-noun compound nouns",
"English nouns",
"English terms with quotations",
"English terms with usage examples",
"English uncountable nouns",
"Pages with 1 entry",
"Pages with entries",
"Rhymes:English/iː",
"Rhymes:English/iː/3 syllables",
"en:Tea"
],
"examples": [
{
"text": "I’ll put the kettle on and make us a cup of Rosie Lee.",
"type": "example"
},
{
"ref": "1929 July, J[ohn] B[oynton] Priestley, “Mr. Oakroyd on t’Road”, in The Good Companions, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.; London: Harper & Brothers, published 1929, →OCLC, book 1, section III, page 133:",
"text": "\"'Ow about a drop o' Rosie Lee?\" said Mr. Joby Jackson. He was very found of this queer rhyming slang, most of which must be omitted from any record of his talk because it is incomprehensible to ordinary people. Even Mr. Oakroyd, […] was sometimes puzzled. But he was not bewildered, of course, by any mention of the famous Rosie, and he was more than ready for a drink of tea.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "1944 February 24, “‘They march better on tea’”, in H. R. Tompkins, editor, The Stirling News-Argus, volume 64, number 26, Stirling, Ont.: H. R. Tompkins, →OCLC, page 5, column 3:",
"text": "Commandos march better on tea than on water. This fact has been demonstrated by an official test recently carried out in Great Britain. […] The \"water platoons\" made good use of their water bottles, but the \"tea platoon\" was the only one to finish the course intact. Which only goes to show that there must be something in the soldier's traditional liking for \"a cup of rosie lee.\"",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "1973, May Hobbs, “The Arts and Crafts Department”, in Born to Struggle, 1st American edition, Plainfield, Vt.: Daughters, Inc., published 1975, →ISBN, page 133:",
"text": "'Sit in here a minute,' he says to them. 'I'll go and make the Rosy Lee.' When he had made the tea he brings it in, gets out the cards, and they start to play, carrying on until it is about half past three.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2007 July, Rhys Bowen [pseudonym; Janet Quin-Harkin], Her Royal Spyness, New York, N.Y.: Berkley Prime Crime, Berkley Books, published 2008, →ISBN, page 203:",
"text": "“[…] Nice cup of Rosie Lee?” he asked, using the Cockney tradition of rhyming slang.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2008, Alf Townsend, “Return to War-torn London”, in Blitz Boy: An Evacuee’s Story, Osney Mead, Oxford, Oxfordshire: ISIS Publishing, published 2009, →ISBN, pages 101–102:",
"text": "They all nodded sagely in agreement and carried on puffing away on their fags and drinking their Rosie Lees.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2016, Chris Graham, with Wendy Holden, “Spring 2015: Brize Norton, Oxfordshire, England”, in Five Minutes of Amazing: My Journey Through Dementia, London: Sphere, →ISBN, page 10:",
"text": "Seated at our map-covered dining table, Vicks and I drank umpteen cups of Rosy Lee as we worked out the best route to take me across seven provinces in Canada and through twenty-six US states, following the coastline as much as possible.",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"Synonym of tea (“(uncountable) a drink made by infusing dried leaves or buds of the tea plant (Camellia sinensis) in hot water; (countable) a cup of this drink”)"
],
"links": [
[
"Cockney rhyming slang",
"Cockney rhyming slang"
],
[
"military",
"military"
],
[
"slang",
"slang"
],
[
"tea",
"tea#Noun"
],
[
"drink",
"drink#Noun"
],
[
"made",
"make#Verb"
],
[
"infusing",
"infuse"
],
[
"dried",
"dried#Adjective"
],
[
"leaves",
"leaf#Noun"
],
[
"buds",
"bud#Noun"
],
[
"tea plant",
"tea plant"
],
[
"Camellia sinensis",
"Camellia sinensis#Translingual"
],
[
"hot",
"hot#Adjective"
],
[
"water",
"water#Noun"
],
[
"cup",
"cup#Noun"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(Cockney rhyming slang, originally military slang) Synonym of tea (“(uncountable) a drink made by infusing dried leaves or buds of the tea plant (Camellia sinensis) in hot water; (countable) a cup of this drink”)"
],
"synonyms": [
{
"word": "Rosie"
},
{
"word": "Rosy"
},
{
"word": "tea"
},
{
"extra": "(“(uncountable) a drink made by infusing dried leaves or buds of the tea plant (Camellia sinensis) in hot water; (countable) a cup of this drink”)",
"tags": [
"synonym",
"synonym-of"
],
"word": "tea"
}
],
"tags": [
"Cockney",
"slang",
"uncountable",
"usually"
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"ipa": "/ˌɹəʊzi ˈliː/",
"tags": [
"Received-Pronunciation"
]
},
{
"ipa": "/ˌɹoʊzi ˈli/",
"tags": [
"General-American"
]
},
{
"audio": "LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-Rosie Lee.wav",
"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/6/61/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Flame%2C_not_lame-Rosie_Lee.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Flame%2C_not_lame-Rosie_Lee.wav.mp3",
"ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/6/61/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Flame%2C_not_lame-Rosie_Lee.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Flame%2C_not_lame-Rosie_Lee.wav.ogg"
},
{
"rhymes": "-iː"
}
],
"word": "Rosie Lee"
}
Download raw JSONL data for Rosie Lee meaning in English (5.9kB)
This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-03-18 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-03-02 using wiktextract (f2d86ce and 633533e). 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.