"bonsai army" meaning in English

See bonsai army in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Forms: bonsai armies [plural]
Etymology: In reference to the small size and decorative nature of bonsai plants. Head templates: {{en-noun}} bonsai army (plural bonsai armies)
  1. A sovereign state's army or military force that is too small to fundamentally protect the country, and could be considered to exist merely "for decoration".
    Sense id: en-bonsai_army-en-noun-QhqxnSC6
  2. A tiny, largely-ornamental (military) structure bereft of the capability to effectively carry out its constitutional missions.
    Sense id: en-bonsai_army-en-noun-J7HuC4Qh
  3. A military that covers the entire spectrum of capabilities, but has virtually no external military clout.
    Sense id: en-bonsai_army-en-noun-Dv-7wqn0 Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 29 23 48

Inflected forms

Download JSON data for bonsai army meaning in English (2.0kB)

{
  "etymology_text": "In reference to the small size and decorative nature of bonsai plants.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "bonsai armies",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "bonsai army (plural bonsai armies)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "Without Soviet support surrounding the missile crisis, Cuba's military would have been merely a bonsai army and they would have quickly succumbed to any serious invasion from the west.",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A sovereign state's army or military force that is too small to fundamentally protect the country, and could be considered to exist merely \"for decoration\"."
      ],
      "id": "en-bonsai_army-en-noun-QhqxnSC6",
      "links": [
        [
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        ],
        [
          "state",
          "state"
        ],
        [
          "army",
          "army"
        ],
        [
          "military",
          "military"
        ],
        [
          "force",
          "force"
        ],
        [
          "small",
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        ],
        [
          "protect",
          "protect"
        ],
        [
          "country",
          "country"
        ],
        [
          "consider",
          "consider"
        ],
        [
          "exist",
          "exist"
        ],
        [
          "decoration",
          "decoration"
        ]
      ]
    },
    {
      "glosses": [
        "A tiny, largely-ornamental (military) structure bereft of the capability to effectively carry out its constitutional missions."
      ],
      "id": "en-bonsai_army-en-noun-J7HuC4Qh",
      "links": [
        [
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        ],
        [
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        [
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        [
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        ]
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "29 23 48",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A military that covers the entire spectrum of capabilities, but has virtually no external military clout."
      ],
      "id": "en-bonsai_army-en-noun-Dv-7wqn0",
      "links": [
        [
          "military",
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        ],
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        [
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        ],
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          "external"
        ],
        [
          "clout",
          "clout"
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "bonsai army"
}
{
  "categories": [
    "English countable nouns",
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English nouns"
  ],
  "etymology_text": "In reference to the small size and decorative nature of bonsai plants.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "bonsai armies",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "bonsai army (plural bonsai armies)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with usage examples"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "Without Soviet support surrounding the missile crisis, Cuba's military would have been merely a bonsai army and they would have quickly succumbed to any serious invasion from the west.",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A sovereign state's army or military force that is too small to fundamentally protect the country, and could be considered to exist merely \"for decoration\"."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "sovereign",
          "sovereign"
        ],
        [
          "state",
          "state"
        ],
        [
          "army",
          "army"
        ],
        [
          "military",
          "military"
        ],
        [
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          "force"
        ],
        [
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        ],
        [
          "protect",
          "protect"
        ],
        [
          "country",
          "country"
        ],
        [
          "consider",
          "consider"
        ],
        [
          "exist",
          "exist"
        ],
        [
          "decoration",
          "decoration"
        ]
      ]
    },
    {
      "glosses": [
        "A tiny, largely-ornamental (military) structure bereft of the capability to effectively carry out its constitutional missions."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "tiny",
          "tiny"
        ],
        [
          "ornamental",
          "ornamental"
        ],
        [
          "military",
          "military"
        ],
        [
          "structure",
          "structure"
        ],
        [
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          "bereft"
        ],
        [
          "capability",
          "capability"
        ],
        [
          "effectively",
          "effectively"
        ],
        [
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          "carry out"
        ],
        [
          "constitutional",
          "constitutional"
        ],
        [
          "mission",
          "mission"
        ]
      ]
    },
    {
      "glosses": [
        "A military that covers the entire spectrum of capabilities, but has virtually no external military clout."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "military",
          "military"
        ],
        [
          "cover",
          "cover"
        ],
        [
          "spectrum",
          "spectrum"
        ],
        [
          "capabilities",
          "capability"
        ],
        [
          "external",
          "external"
        ],
        [
          "clout",
          "clout"
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "bonsai army"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-03 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.