"build a better mousetrap" meaning in English

See build a better mousetrap in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Verb

Audio: en-au-build a better mousetrap.ogg [Australia] Forms: builds a better mousetrap [present, singular, third-person], building a better mousetrap [participle, present], built a better mousetrap [participle, past], built a better mousetrap [past]
Etymology: A shortening of build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door. Derived from: :If a man has good corn or wood, or boards, or pigs, to sell, or can make better chairs or knives, crucibles or church organs, than anybody else, you will find a broad hard-beaten road to his house, though it be in the woods. Ralph Waldo Emerson Etymology templates: {{m|en|build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door}} build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door Head templates: {{en-verb|build<,,built> a better mousetrap}} build a better mousetrap (third-person singular simple present builds a better mousetrap, present participle building a better mousetrap, simple past and past participle built a better mousetrap)
  1. (idiomatic) To invent the next great thing; to have a better idea. Wikipedia link: Build a better mousetrap, and the world will beat a path to your door Tags: idiomatic
    Sense id: en-build_a_better_mousetrap-en-verb-EOw~pykz Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header

Download JSON data for build a better mousetrap meaning in English (2.4kB)

{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door"
      },
      "expansion": "build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door",
      "name": "m"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "A shortening of build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door.\nDerived from:\n:If a man has good corn or wood, or boards, or pigs, to sell, or can make better chairs or knives, crucibles or church organs, than anybody else, you will find a broad hard-beaten road to his house, though it be in the woods. Ralph Waldo Emerson",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "builds a better mousetrap",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "building a better mousetrap",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "built a better mousetrap",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "built a better mousetrap",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "build<,,built> a better mousetrap"
      },
      "expansion": "build a better mousetrap (third-person singular simple present builds a better mousetrap, present participle building a better mousetrap, simple past and past participle built a better mousetrap)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "Build a better mousetrap, and the world will beat a path to your door. misattributed to Ralph Waldo Emerson"
        },
        {
          "text": "Of all the inventors to obtain patents, only a few have really built a better mousetrap."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To invent the next great thing; to have a better idea."
      ],
      "id": "en-build_a_better_mousetrap-en-verb-EOw~pykz",
      "links": [
        [
          "invent",
          "invent"
        ],
        [
          "idea",
          "idea"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) To invent the next great thing; to have a better idea."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ],
      "wikipedia": [
        "Build a better mousetrap, and the world will beat a path to your door"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "en-au-build a better mousetrap.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/a/a5/En-au-build_a_better_mousetrap.ogg/En-au-build_a_better_mousetrap.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a5/En-au-build_a_better_mousetrap.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "word": "build a better mousetrap"
}
{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door"
      },
      "expansion": "build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door",
      "name": "m"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "A shortening of build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door.\nDerived from:\n:If a man has good corn or wood, or boards, or pigs, to sell, or can make better chairs or knives, crucibles or church organs, than anybody else, you will find a broad hard-beaten road to his house, though it be in the woods. Ralph Waldo Emerson",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "builds a better mousetrap",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "building a better mousetrap",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "built a better mousetrap",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "built a better mousetrap",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "build<,,built> a better mousetrap"
      },
      "expansion": "build a better mousetrap (third-person singular simple present builds a better mousetrap, present participle building a better mousetrap, simple past and past participle built a better mousetrap)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English idioms",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English terms with audio links",
        "English verbs"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "Build a better mousetrap, and the world will beat a path to your door. misattributed to Ralph Waldo Emerson"
        },
        {
          "text": "Of all the inventors to obtain patents, only a few have really built a better mousetrap."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To invent the next great thing; to have a better idea."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "invent",
          "invent"
        ],
        [
          "idea",
          "idea"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) To invent the next great thing; to have a better idea."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ],
      "wikipedia": [
        "Build a better mousetrap, and the world will beat a path to your door"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "en-au-build a better mousetrap.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/a/a5/En-au-build_a_better_mousetrap.ogg/En-au-build_a_better_mousetrap.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a5/En-au-build_a_better_mousetrap.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "word": "build a better mousetrap"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-04-26 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-04-21 using wiktextract (93a6c53 and 21a9316). 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.