"asphalt jungle" meaning in English

See asphalt jungle in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Audio: en-au-asphalt jungle.ogg [Australia] Forms: asphalt jungles [plural]
Etymology: From W. R. Burnett's novel The Asphalt Jungle (1949). Head templates: {{en-noun}} asphalt jungle (plural asphalt jungles)
  1. (idiomatic) A city or urban area, where the landscape is covered by pavement and the environment is alienating and unsafe. Tags: idiomatic Categories (topical): Road transport Related terms: concrete jungle Translations (type of urban area): asfalttiviidakko (Finnish), asfaltowa dżungla (Polish), ка́менные джу́нгли (kámennyje džúngli) [plural] (Russian), градска џунгла [feminine] (Serbo-Croatian), jungla de asfalto [feminine] (Spanish)
    Sense id: en-asphalt_jungle-en-noun-BDJ6YQmD Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header

Inflected forms

Download JSON data for asphalt jungle meaning in English (2.7kB)

{
  "etymology_text": "From W. R. Burnett's novel The Asphalt Jungle (1949).",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "asphalt jungles",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "asphalt jungle (plural asphalt jungles)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "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": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Road transport",
          "orig": "en:Road transport",
          "parents": [
            "Transport",
            "All topics",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1962 July 27, “Manhattan's Lower Depths”, in Time (film review of Strangers in the City), archived from the original on 2012-03-07",
          "text": "The sound track tingles with cool jazz, the dry atonal music of the asphalt jungle.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1976, A. Robert Lee, “Violence Real and Imagined: The World of Chester Himes' Novels”, in Negro American Literature Forum, volume 10, number 1, page 13",
          "text": "Harlem comes through as an urban hothouse mean with exotic hustle and violence, a tangible asphalt jungle with its own abrasive laws of motion.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A city or urban area, where the landscape is covered by pavement and the environment is alienating and unsafe."
      ],
      "id": "en-asphalt_jungle-en-noun-BDJ6YQmD",
      "links": [
        [
          "city",
          "city"
        ],
        [
          "urban",
          "urban"
        ],
        [
          "landscape",
          "landscape"
        ],
        [
          "pavement",
          "pavement"
        ],
        [
          "environment",
          "environment"
        ],
        [
          "alienating",
          "alienate"
        ],
        [
          "unsafe",
          "unsafe"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) A city or urban area, where the landscape is covered by pavement and the environment is alienating and unsafe."
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "word": "concrete jungle"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "type of urban area",
          "word": "asfalttiviidakko"
        },
        {
          "code": "pl",
          "lang": "Polish",
          "sense": "type of urban area",
          "word": "asfaltowa dżungla"
        },
        {
          "code": "ru",
          "lang": "Russian",
          "roman": "kámennyje džúngli",
          "sense": "type of urban area",
          "tags": [
            "plural"
          ],
          "word": "ка́менные джу́нгли"
        },
        {
          "code": "sh",
          "lang": "Serbo-Croatian",
          "sense": "type of urban area",
          "tags": [
            "feminine"
          ],
          "word": "градска џунгла"
        },
        {
          "code": "es",
          "lang": "Spanish",
          "sense": "type of urban area",
          "tags": [
            "feminine"
          ],
          "word": "jungla de asfalto"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "en-au-asphalt jungle.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/e/e1/En-au-asphalt_jungle.ogg/En-au-asphalt_jungle.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e1/En-au-asphalt_jungle.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "word": "asphalt jungle"
}
{
  "etymology_text": "From W. R. Burnett's novel The Asphalt Jungle (1949).",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "asphalt jungles",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "asphalt jungle (plural asphalt jungles)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "concrete jungle"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English countable nouns",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English idioms",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English nouns",
        "English terms with audio links",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "en:Road transport"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1962 July 27, “Manhattan's Lower Depths”, in Time (film review of Strangers in the City), archived from the original on 2012-03-07",
          "text": "The sound track tingles with cool jazz, the dry atonal music of the asphalt jungle.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1976, A. Robert Lee, “Violence Real and Imagined: The World of Chester Himes' Novels”, in Negro American Literature Forum, volume 10, number 1, page 13",
          "text": "Harlem comes through as an urban hothouse mean with exotic hustle and violence, a tangible asphalt jungle with its own abrasive laws of motion.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A city or urban area, where the landscape is covered by pavement and the environment is alienating and unsafe."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "city",
          "city"
        ],
        [
          "urban",
          "urban"
        ],
        [
          "landscape",
          "landscape"
        ],
        [
          "pavement",
          "pavement"
        ],
        [
          "environment",
          "environment"
        ],
        [
          "alienating",
          "alienate"
        ],
        [
          "unsafe",
          "unsafe"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) A city or urban area, where the landscape is covered by pavement and the environment is alienating and unsafe."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "en-au-asphalt jungle.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/e/e1/En-au-asphalt_jungle.ogg/En-au-asphalt_jungle.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e1/En-au-asphalt_jungle.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "type of urban area",
      "word": "asfalttiviidakko"
    },
    {
      "code": "pl",
      "lang": "Polish",
      "sense": "type of urban area",
      "word": "asfaltowa dżungla"
    },
    {
      "code": "ru",
      "lang": "Russian",
      "roman": "kámennyje džúngli",
      "sense": "type of urban area",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ],
      "word": "ка́менные джу́нгли"
    },
    {
      "code": "sh",
      "lang": "Serbo-Croatian",
      "sense": "type of urban area",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "градска џунгла"
    },
    {
      "code": "es",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "sense": "type of urban area",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "jungla de asfalto"
    }
  ],
  "word": "asphalt jungle"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-04-30 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-04-21 using wiktextract (210104c 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.

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