"bag of tricks" meaning in English

See bag of tricks in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Audio: en-au-bag of tricks.ogg Forms: bags of tricks [plural]
Etymology: An allusion to the collection of props and devices used by a magician. Head templates: {{en-noun|bags of tricks|head=bag of tricks}} bag of tricks (plural bags of tricks)
  1. (idiomatic) A set of skills, techniques, items of information, or other resources used to help achieve professional or personal goals. Tags: idiomatic
    Sense id: en-bag_of_tricks-en-noun-gS-6mA~g Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Pages with entries Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 57 43 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 57 43
  2. (idiomatic, dated, often preceded by whole) A collection of items, especially as constituting a very complete set of such items. Tags: dated, idiomatic Synonyms (very complete collection of items): the works, whole ball of wax
    Sense id: en-bag_of_tricks-en-noun-B2HKlUVo Categories (other): Pages with 1 entry Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 44 56 Disambiguation of 'very complete collection of items': 9 91

Inflected forms

{
  "etymology_text": "An allusion to the collection of props and devices used by a magician.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "bags of tricks",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "bags of tricks",
        "head": "bag of tricks"
      },
      "expansion": "bag of tricks (plural bags of tricks)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "57 43",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "57 43",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1909, Rex Ellingwood Beach, chapter 13, in The Silver Horde:",
          "text": "\"When the time comes I'll go down in the little bag of tricks and dig up anything you need, from a jig dance to a jimmy and a bottle of soup.\"",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1922, P. G. Wodehouse, chapter 14, in Right Ho, Jeeves:",
          "text": "I was expecting the tearful ticking off, the girlish recriminations and all the rest of the bag of tricks along those lines.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1993 March 25, Mike Freeman, “Pro Basketball: Nets Win as Coleman Does His Superman Act”, in New York Times, retrieved 2011-09-03:",
          "text": "Daly went to his bag of tricks and found, what else, a way to win.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2002 October 21, Sora Song, “Body of Evidence”, in Time:",
          "text": "But investigators have a hefty bag of tricks to expose them—powder, chemicals, lasers and lights.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A set of skills, techniques, items of information, or other resources used to help achieve professional or personal goals."
      ],
      "id": "en-bag_of_tricks-en-noun-gS-6mA~g",
      "links": [
        [
          "skill",
          "skill"
        ],
        [
          "technique",
          "technique"
        ],
        [
          "information",
          "information"
        ],
        [
          "resource",
          "resource"
        ],
        [
          "profession",
          "profession"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) A set of skills, techniques, items of information, or other resources used to help achieve professional or personal goals."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "44 56",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1908, Jerome K. Jerome, “I Had A Vexing Dream One Night”, in The Angel and the Author; and Others:",
          "text": "Instead of to the credit side of my account he had put the whole bag of tricks to my debit.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1922, John Buchan, chapter 7, in Huntingtower:",
          "text": "When it was built fifteen years ago it was considered a model—six bathrooms, its own electric light plant, steam heating, and independent boiler for hot water, the whole bag of tricks.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A collection of items, especially as constituting a very complete set of such items."
      ],
      "id": "en-bag_of_tricks-en-noun-B2HKlUVo",
      "links": [
        [
          "whole",
          "whole#English"
        ],
        [
          "collection",
          "collection"
        ],
        [
          "complete",
          "complete"
        ]
      ],
      "qualifier": "often preceded by whole",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic, dated, often preceded by whole) A collection of items, especially as constituting a very complete set of such items."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "_dis1": "9 91",
          "sense": "very complete collection of items",
          "word": "the works"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "9 91",
          "sense": "very complete collection of items",
          "word": "whole ball of wax"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "dated",
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "en-au-bag of tricks.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/6/61/En-au-bag_of_tricks.ogg/En-au-bag_of_tricks.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/61/En-au-bag_of_tricks.ogg"
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  "word": "bag of tricks"
}
{
  "categories": [
    "English countable nouns",
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English nouns",
    "Pages with 1 entry",
    "Pages with entries"
  ],
  "etymology_text": "An allusion to the collection of props and devices used by a magician.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "bags of tricks",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "bags of tricks",
        "head": "bag of tricks"
      },
      "expansion": "bag of tricks (plural bags of tricks)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English idioms",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "Quotation templates to be cleaned"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1909, Rex Ellingwood Beach, chapter 13, in The Silver Horde:",
          "text": "\"When the time comes I'll go down in the little bag of tricks and dig up anything you need, from a jig dance to a jimmy and a bottle of soup.\"",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1922, P. G. Wodehouse, chapter 14, in Right Ho, Jeeves:",
          "text": "I was expecting the tearful ticking off, the girlish recriminations and all the rest of the bag of tricks along those lines.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1993 March 25, Mike Freeman, “Pro Basketball: Nets Win as Coleman Does His Superman Act”, in New York Times, retrieved 2011-09-03:",
          "text": "Daly went to his bag of tricks and found, what else, a way to win.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2002 October 21, Sora Song, “Body of Evidence”, in Time:",
          "text": "But investigators have a hefty bag of tricks to expose them—powder, chemicals, lasers and lights.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A set of skills, techniques, items of information, or other resources used to help achieve professional or personal goals."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "skill",
          "skill"
        ],
        [
          "technique",
          "technique"
        ],
        [
          "information",
          "information"
        ],
        [
          "resource",
          "resource"
        ],
        [
          "profession",
          "profession"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) A set of skills, techniques, items of information, or other resources used to help achieve professional or personal goals."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English dated terms",
        "English idioms",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "Quotation templates to be cleaned"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1908, Jerome K. Jerome, “I Had A Vexing Dream One Night”, in The Angel and the Author; and Others:",
          "text": "Instead of to the credit side of my account he had put the whole bag of tricks to my debit.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1922, John Buchan, chapter 7, in Huntingtower:",
          "text": "When it was built fifteen years ago it was considered a model—six bathrooms, its own electric light plant, steam heating, and independent boiler for hot water, the whole bag of tricks.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A collection of items, especially as constituting a very complete set of such items."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "whole",
          "whole#English"
        ],
        [
          "collection",
          "collection"
        ],
        [
          "complete",
          "complete"
        ]
      ],
      "qualifier": "often preceded by whole",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic, dated, often preceded by whole) A collection of items, especially as constituting a very complete set of such items."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "dated",
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "en-au-bag of tricks.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/6/61/En-au-bag_of_tricks.ogg/En-au-bag_of_tricks.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/61/En-au-bag_of_tricks.ogg"
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "sense": "very complete collection of items",
      "word": "the works"
    },
    {
      "sense": "very complete collection of items",
      "word": "whole ball of wax"
    }
  ],
  "word": "bag of tricks"
}

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This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-01-10 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-01-01 using wiktextract (df33d17 and 4ed51a5). 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.