See buggy whip in All languages combined, or Wiktionary
{
"etymology_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "Q61690",
"in": "1960",
"nobycat": "1",
"notext": "1"
},
"expansion": "German-American economist and professor at Harvard Business School Theodore Levitt in 1960",
"name": "coin"
}
],
"etymology_text": "In the twentieth century, after the advent of widespread automobile use and diminished horse use, the buggy whip became a symbol of obsoleted technologies and disrupted business models. Popularized by German-American economist and professor at Harvard Business School Theodore Levitt in 1960.",
"forms": [
{
"form": "buggy whips",
"tags": [
"plural"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {},
"expansion": "buggy whip (plural buggy whips)",
"name": "en-noun"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "noun",
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
{
"_dis": "94 6",
"kind": "other",
"name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
"parents": [],
"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "93 7",
"kind": "other",
"name": "Pages with 1 entry",
"parents": [],
"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "93 7",
"kind": "other",
"name": "Pages with entries",
"parents": [],
"source": "w+disamb"
}
],
"coordinate_terms": [
{
"word": "see at whip § Hyponyms"
}
],
"examples": [
{
"bold_text_offsets": [
[
77,
87
]
],
"ref": "1907, O. Henry [pseudonym; William Sydney Porter], “The Indian Summer of Dry Valley Johnson”, in Heart of the West, New York, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company for Review of Reviews Co., →OCLC, page 259:",
"text": "When his strawberries were beginning to ripen Dry Valley bought the heaviest buggy whip in the Santa Rosa store. He sat for many hours under the live oak tree plaiting and weaving in an extension to its lash.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"bold_text_offsets": [
[
161,
171
]
],
"ref": "1917, Jack London, Michael, Brother of Jerry:",
"text": "Rushed to the springboard and the leap, always, after the take-off, in mid-air, they had to encounter an assistant who stood underneath, an extraordinarily long buggy-whip in hand, and lashed them vigorously.",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"A horsewhip with a long stiff shaft and a relatively short lash, used for driving a horse harnessed to a buggy or other small open carriage."
],
"hypernyms": [
{
"word": "horsewhip"
},
{
"word": "whip"
}
],
"id": "en-buggy_whip-en-noun-m2r7N-Tw",
"links": [
[
"horsewhip",
"horsewhip"
],
[
"shaft",
"shaft"
],
[
"lash",
"lash"
],
[
"horse",
"horse"
],
[
"harness",
"harness"
],
[
"buggy",
"buggy"
],
[
"carriage",
"carriage"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(historical) A horsewhip with a long stiff shaft and a relatively short lash, used for driving a horse harnessed to a buggy or other small open carriage."
],
"related": [
{
"_dis1": "100 0",
"word": "horseless carriage"
}
],
"tags": [
"historical"
]
},
{
"categories": [
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "English terms with collocations",
"parents": [],
"source": "w"
}
],
"examples": [
{
"bold_text_offsets": [
[
20,
30
]
],
"tags": [
"collocation"
],
"text": "went the way of the buggy whip",
"type": "example"
},
{
"bold_text_offsets": [
[
59,
69
],
[
113,
123
],
[
113,
124
]
],
"ref": "[2010 January 9, Randall Stross, “Failing Like a Buggy Whip Maker? Better Check Your Simile”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 18 Jul 2017:",
"text": "Need to describe a hand-held mathematical calculator? Try “buggy whip.” A typewriter? A VCR? They’ve been called buggy whips, too. Even newspapers have received that label. (That one hurts.)",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"bold_text_offsets": [
[
98,
108
],
[
165,
176
]
],
"ref": "2012 June 12, Rebecca J. Rosen, quoting Thomas Keane, “Pay Phones: A Technology for the Poor That's About to Get Left Hanging”, in The Atlantic, archived from the original on 20 Jul 2015:",
"text": "“We're sort of the last guy standing on pay phones,” [Thomas] Keane told USA Today. “I call it my buggy-whip strategy. I'm sure somebody somewhere is happily making buggy whips at some level.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"bold_text_offsets": [
[
58,
68
]
],
"ref": "2025 October 11, Mark Wakefield, quotee, “Carmakers steer back towards more lucrative petrol vehicles”, in FT Weekend, Companies & Markets, page 10:",
"text": "“The danger is that in the long run, does this become the buggy whip challenge?” said Mark Wakefield, global automotive market lead at AlixPartners.",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"An obsolete product or technology."
],
"id": "en-buggy_whip-en-noun-UaR4w~0j",
"links": [
[
"product",
"product"
],
[
"technology",
"technology"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(figurative) An obsolete product or technology."
],
"tags": [
"figuratively"
]
}
],
"word": "buggy whip"
}
{
"categories": [
"English coinages",
"English countable nouns",
"English entries with incorrect language header",
"English lemmas",
"English multiword terms",
"English nouns",
"Pages with 1 entry",
"Pages with entries"
],
"etymology_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "Q61690",
"in": "1960",
"nobycat": "1",
"notext": "1"
},
"expansion": "German-American economist and professor at Harvard Business School Theodore Levitt in 1960",
"name": "coin"
}
],
"etymology_text": "In the twentieth century, after the advent of widespread automobile use and diminished horse use, the buggy whip became a symbol of obsoleted technologies and disrupted business models. Popularized by German-American economist and professor at Harvard Business School Theodore Levitt in 1960.",
"forms": [
{
"form": "buggy whips",
"tags": [
"plural"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {},
"expansion": "buggy whip (plural buggy whips)",
"name": "en-noun"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "noun",
"related": [
{
"word": "horseless carriage"
}
],
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
"English terms with historical senses",
"English terms with quotations"
],
"coordinate_terms": [
{
"word": "see at whip § Hyponyms"
}
],
"examples": [
{
"bold_text_offsets": [
[
77,
87
]
],
"ref": "1907, O. Henry [pseudonym; William Sydney Porter], “The Indian Summer of Dry Valley Johnson”, in Heart of the West, New York, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company for Review of Reviews Co., →OCLC, page 259:",
"text": "When his strawberries were beginning to ripen Dry Valley bought the heaviest buggy whip in the Santa Rosa store. He sat for many hours under the live oak tree plaiting and weaving in an extension to its lash.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"bold_text_offsets": [
[
161,
171
]
],
"ref": "1917, Jack London, Michael, Brother of Jerry:",
"text": "Rushed to the springboard and the leap, always, after the take-off, in mid-air, they had to encounter an assistant who stood underneath, an extraordinarily long buggy-whip in hand, and lashed them vigorously.",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"A horsewhip with a long stiff shaft and a relatively short lash, used for driving a horse harnessed to a buggy or other small open carriage."
],
"hypernyms": [
{
"word": "horsewhip"
},
{
"word": "whip"
}
],
"links": [
[
"horsewhip",
"horsewhip"
],
[
"shaft",
"shaft"
],
[
"lash",
"lash"
],
[
"horse",
"horse"
],
[
"harness",
"harness"
],
[
"buggy",
"buggy"
],
[
"carriage",
"carriage"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(historical) A horsewhip with a long stiff shaft and a relatively short lash, used for driving a horse harnessed to a buggy or other small open carriage."
],
"tags": [
"historical"
]
},
{
"categories": [
"English terms with collocations",
"English terms with quotations"
],
"examples": [
{
"bold_text_offsets": [
[
20,
30
]
],
"tags": [
"collocation"
],
"text": "went the way of the buggy whip",
"type": "example"
},
{
"bold_text_offsets": [
[
59,
69
],
[
113,
123
],
[
113,
124
]
],
"ref": "[2010 January 9, Randall Stross, “Failing Like a Buggy Whip Maker? Better Check Your Simile”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 18 Jul 2017:",
"text": "Need to describe a hand-held mathematical calculator? Try “buggy whip.” A typewriter? A VCR? They’ve been called buggy whips, too. Even newspapers have received that label. (That one hurts.)",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"bold_text_offsets": [
[
98,
108
],
[
165,
176
]
],
"ref": "2012 June 12, Rebecca J. Rosen, quoting Thomas Keane, “Pay Phones: A Technology for the Poor That's About to Get Left Hanging”, in The Atlantic, archived from the original on 20 Jul 2015:",
"text": "“We're sort of the last guy standing on pay phones,” [Thomas] Keane told USA Today. “I call it my buggy-whip strategy. I'm sure somebody somewhere is happily making buggy whips at some level.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"bold_text_offsets": [
[
58,
68
]
],
"ref": "2025 October 11, Mark Wakefield, quotee, “Carmakers steer back towards more lucrative petrol vehicles”, in FT Weekend, Companies & Markets, page 10:",
"text": "“The danger is that in the long run, does this become the buggy whip challenge?” said Mark Wakefield, global automotive market lead at AlixPartners.",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"An obsolete product or technology."
],
"links": [
[
"product",
"product"
],
[
"technology",
"technology"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(figurative) An obsolete product or technology."
],
"tags": [
"figuratively"
]
}
],
"word": "buggy whip"
}
Download raw JSONL data for buggy whip meaning in English (4.3kB)
This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2026-03-25 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2026-03-03 using wiktextract (05c257f and 9d9a410). 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.