"brass ring" meaning in English

See brass ring in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Forms: brass rings [plural]
Etymology: Some fairground carousels offer a prize to a rider who manages to grab a brass ring. Head templates: {{en-noun}} brass ring (plural brass rings)
  1. (US) A prize or goal, often a chance to advance in one's career. Tags: US
    Sense id: en-brass_ring-en-noun-9LI5m9dU Categories (other): American English, English entries with incorrect language header

Inflected forms

Download JSON data for brass ring meaning in English (2.1kB)

{
  "etymology_text": "Some fairground carousels offer a prize to a rider who manages to grab a brass ring.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "brass rings",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "brass ring (plural brass rings)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "American English",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "He's going for the brass ring.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1962 March 11, James Reston, “Another Kennedy Reaches for the Brass Ring”, in New York Times, page 8E",
          "text": "Another Kennedy Reaches for the Brass Ring [title] The latest entry in the political Irish sweepstakes is Teddy Kennedy, the President's 30-year-old brother.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1967, Bob Gaudio, Peggy Farina (lyrics and music), “Beggin'”, performed by The Four Seasons",
          "text": "I'm holdin' on / I can't fall back / Now that big brass ring / Is a shade of black",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1989, Greil Marcus, Lipstick Traces, Faber & Faber, published 2009",
          "text": "As a perversion of freedom it was, like any perversion, erotic; as alienation it carried the frisson of having just missed the brass ring, a sensation that always brought one back for more.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2019, Kelly D. Harrison, Air Force Cop: An Autobiography, page 100",
          "text": "The one thing considered the brass ring in selling insurance was making a sale on a cold canvass. Cold canvassing was the most dreaded exercise for most insurance salesmen.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A prize or goal, often a chance to advance in one's career."
      ],
      "id": "en-brass_ring-en-noun-9LI5m9dU",
      "links": [
        [
          "prize",
          "prize"
        ],
        [
          "goal",
          "goal"
        ],
        [
          "advance",
          "advance"
        ],
        [
          "career",
          "career"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(US) A prize or goal, often a chance to advance in one's career."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "brass ring"
}
{
  "etymology_text": "Some fairground carousels offer a prize to a rider who manages to grab a brass ring.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "brass rings",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "brass ring (plural brass rings)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "American English",
        "English countable nouns",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English nouns",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English terms with usage examples",
        "Quotation templates to be cleaned"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "He's going for the brass ring.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1962 March 11, James Reston, “Another Kennedy Reaches for the Brass Ring”, in New York Times, page 8E",
          "text": "Another Kennedy Reaches for the Brass Ring [title] The latest entry in the political Irish sweepstakes is Teddy Kennedy, the President's 30-year-old brother.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1967, Bob Gaudio, Peggy Farina (lyrics and music), “Beggin'”, performed by The Four Seasons",
          "text": "I'm holdin' on / I can't fall back / Now that big brass ring / Is a shade of black",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1989, Greil Marcus, Lipstick Traces, Faber & Faber, published 2009",
          "text": "As a perversion of freedom it was, like any perversion, erotic; as alienation it carried the frisson of having just missed the brass ring, a sensation that always brought one back for more.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2019, Kelly D. Harrison, Air Force Cop: An Autobiography, page 100",
          "text": "The one thing considered the brass ring in selling insurance was making a sale on a cold canvass. Cold canvassing was the most dreaded exercise for most insurance salesmen.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A prize or goal, often a chance to advance in one's career."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "prize",
          "prize"
        ],
        [
          "goal",
          "goal"
        ],
        [
          "advance",
          "advance"
        ],
        [
          "career",
          "career"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(US) A prize or goal, often a chance to advance in one's career."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "brass ring"
}

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.

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