"back-pocket" meaning in English

See back-pocket in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Verb

Forms: back-pockets [present, singular, third-person], back-pocketing [participle, present], back-pocketed [participle, past], back-pocketed [past]
Etymology: From back pocket. Etymology templates: {{m|en|back pocket}} back pocket Head templates: {{en-verb}} back-pocket (third-person singular simple present back-pockets, present participle back-pocketing, simple past and past participle back-pocketed)
  1. (transitive) To put (something) into a back pocket. Tags: transitive Synonyms: backpocket Related terms: in one's back pocket
    Sense id: en-back-pocket-en-verb--5f3x~xF Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 53 47
  2. (transitive, idiomatic) To put (something) aside for future use; to keep in reserve. Tags: idiomatic, transitive
    Sense id: en-back-pocket-en-verb-MivyBpnE Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 53 47

Inflected forms

Alternative forms

Download JSON data for back-pocket meaning in English (2.7kB)

{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "back pocket"
      },
      "expansion": "back pocket",
      "name": "m"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From back pocket.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "back-pockets",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "back-pocketing",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "back-pocketed",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "back-pocketed",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "back-pocket (third-person singular simple present back-pockets, present participle back-pocketing, simple past and past participle back-pocketed)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "53 47",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2003, Robert Eversz, Burning Garbo: A Nina Zero Novel, New York, NY: Simon & Schuster, published 2005, page 23",
          "text": "“Right.” He back-pocketed the notebook and lifted the Nikon from my bag. “Take a few steps down the hill and point toward the ruins so I can get both in one shot.”",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To put (something) into a back pocket."
      ],
      "id": "en-back-pocket-en-verb--5f3x~xF",
      "links": [
        [
          "put",
          "put"
        ],
        [
          "back pocket",
          "back pocket"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(transitive) To put (something) into a back pocket."
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "_dis1": "100 0",
          "word": "in one's back pocket"
        }
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "_dis1": "100 0",
          "word": "backpocket"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "transitive"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "53 47",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2019 June 7, Scott Allen, “How Mumford and Sons became the soundtrack for Capitals’ Stanley Cup triumph”, in The Washington Post",
          "text": "“All the lyrics talk about is humility and heartbreak, and then at the end it’s exuberance and joy,” Hines said. “The only way that fits is if the Caps win the Stanley Cup, so I sort of back-pocketed the idea for years. I put together multiple iterations of it in my head, and it just never panned out, because they never ended up finishing the deal.”",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To put (something) aside for future use; to keep in reserve."
      ],
      "id": "en-back-pocket-en-verb-MivyBpnE",
      "links": [
        [
          "put",
          "put aside"
        ],
        [
          "aside",
          "put aside"
        ],
        [
          "future",
          "future"
        ],
        [
          "use",
          "use"
        ],
        [
          "keep",
          "keep"
        ],
        [
          "in reserve",
          "in reserve"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(transitive, idiomatic) To put (something) aside for future use; to keep in reserve."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic",
        "transitive"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "back-pocket"
}
{
  "categories": [
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English verbs"
  ],
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "back pocket"
      },
      "expansion": "back pocket",
      "name": "m"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From back pocket.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "back-pockets",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "back-pocketing",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "back-pocketed",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "back-pocketed",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "back-pocket (third-person singular simple present back-pockets, present participle back-pocketing, simple past and past participle back-pocketed)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "in one's back pocket"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English transitive verbs"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2003, Robert Eversz, Burning Garbo: A Nina Zero Novel, New York, NY: Simon & Schuster, published 2005, page 23",
          "text": "“Right.” He back-pocketed the notebook and lifted the Nikon from my bag. “Take a few steps down the hill and point toward the ruins so I can get both in one shot.”",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To put (something) into a back pocket."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "put",
          "put"
        ],
        [
          "back pocket",
          "back pocket"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(transitive) To put (something) into a back pocket."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "transitive"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English idioms",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English transitive verbs"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2019 June 7, Scott Allen, “How Mumford and Sons became the soundtrack for Capitals’ Stanley Cup triumph”, in The Washington Post",
          "text": "“All the lyrics talk about is humility and heartbreak, and then at the end it’s exuberance and joy,” Hines said. “The only way that fits is if the Caps win the Stanley Cup, so I sort of back-pocketed the idea for years. I put together multiple iterations of it in my head, and it just never panned out, because they never ended up finishing the deal.”",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To put (something) aside for future use; to keep in reserve."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "put",
          "put aside"
        ],
        [
          "aside",
          "put aside"
        ],
        [
          "future",
          "future"
        ],
        [
          "use",
          "use"
        ],
        [
          "keep",
          "keep"
        ],
        [
          "in reserve",
          "in reserve"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(transitive, idiomatic) To put (something) aside for future use; to keep in reserve."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic",
        "transitive"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "backpocket"
    }
  ],
  "word": "back-pocket"
}

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