"candle in the wind" meaning in English

See candle in the wind in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Audio: en-au-candle in the wind.ogg Forms: candles in the wind [plural]
Head templates: {{en-noun|candles in the wind}} candle in the wind (plural candles in the wind)
  1. (idiomatic) A fragile or vulnerable thing, likely to be put in jeopardy. Tags: idiomatic Translations (a fragile or vulnerable thing): 風中之燭 (Chinese Mandarin), 风中之烛 (fēngzhōngzhīzhú) (Chinese Mandarin), kynttilänliekki (Finnish), korttitalo (Finnish), petite chose fragile [feminine] (French)

Inflected forms

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      "form": "candles in the wind",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
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  "lang_code": "en",
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        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
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        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1929, Earl Derr Biggers, chapter VII, in The Black Camel, Bobbs-Merrill:",
          "text": "A woman of flame, they had called her. The flame had flickered and died like a candle in the wind--in the restless trade-wind blowing from the Koolau Range.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1990, Muthiah Alagappa, Institute of Strategic and International Studies (Malaysia), Building confidence, resolving conflicts: proceedings of the Second Asia-Pacific Roundtable, Kuala Lumpur, July 1-4, 1988, Institute of Strategic and International Studies (ISIS) Malaysia, p. 14",
          "text": "The South Koreans have indeed accomplished an economic miracle in the past three decades but their economy is 'a candle in the wind' […]"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1999, Royal African Society, African affairs, Volume 98, Published for the Royal African Society by the Oxford University Press, p. 114",
          "text": "... tyranny in Cameroon today is a candle in the wind. Its days, it is hoped, are numbered ..."
        },
        {
          "ref": "2004, K.D. Gangrade, Moral Lessons From Gandhi S Autobiography And Other Essays, Concept Publishing Company, page 178:",
          "text": "There are a good number of people who feel that the girl child's life in India is a 'candle' in the wind which flickers for a moment to be extinguished for ever.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2007, Pacific indigenous dialogue: on faith, peace, reconciliation and good governance, Alafua Campus,Continuing and Community Education Programme, University of the South Pacific, p. 192",
          "text": "Sometimes around here, it seems like hope is a candle in the wind."
        },
        {
          "ref": "2010, Phillip Dibble, The Fundamental Things, AuthorHouse, page 91:",
          "text": "Ethiopia is a candle in the wind, the winds of war and fate […]",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A fragile or vulnerable thing, likely to be put in jeopardy."
      ],
      "id": "en-candle_in_the_wind-en-noun-psI8EhTq",
      "links": [
        [
          "fragile",
          "fragile"
        ],
        [
          "vulnerable",
          "vulnerable"
        ],
        [
          "jeopardy",
          "jeopardy"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) A fragile or vulnerable thing, likely to be put in jeopardy."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "code": "cmn",
          "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
          "sense": "a fragile or vulnerable thing",
          "word": "風中之燭"
        },
        {
          "code": "cmn",
          "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
          "roman": "fēngzhōngzhīzhú",
          "sense": "a fragile or vulnerable thing",
          "word": "风中之烛"
        },
        {
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "a fragile or vulnerable thing",
          "word": "kynttilänliekki"
        },
        {
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "a fragile or vulnerable thing",
          "word": "korttitalo"
        },
        {
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "sense": "a fragile or vulnerable thing",
          "tags": [
            "feminine"
          ],
          "word": "petite chose fragile"
        }
      ]
    }
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  "word": "candle in the wind"
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{
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      "form": "candles in the wind",
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  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
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        "English entries with incorrect language header",
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        "English multiword terms",
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        "Entries with translation boxes",
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        "Quotation templates to be cleaned",
        "Terms with Finnish translations",
        "Terms with French translations",
        "Terms with Mandarin translations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1929, Earl Derr Biggers, chapter VII, in The Black Camel, Bobbs-Merrill:",
          "text": "A woman of flame, they had called her. The flame had flickered and died like a candle in the wind--in the restless trade-wind blowing from the Koolau Range.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1990, Muthiah Alagappa, Institute of Strategic and International Studies (Malaysia), Building confidence, resolving conflicts: proceedings of the Second Asia-Pacific Roundtable, Kuala Lumpur, July 1-4, 1988, Institute of Strategic and International Studies (ISIS) Malaysia, p. 14",
          "text": "The South Koreans have indeed accomplished an economic miracle in the past three decades but their economy is 'a candle in the wind' […]"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1999, Royal African Society, African affairs, Volume 98, Published for the Royal African Society by the Oxford University Press, p. 114",
          "text": "... tyranny in Cameroon today is a candle in the wind. Its days, it is hoped, are numbered ..."
        },
        {
          "ref": "2004, K.D. Gangrade, Moral Lessons From Gandhi S Autobiography And Other Essays, Concept Publishing Company, page 178:",
          "text": "There are a good number of people who feel that the girl child's life in India is a 'candle' in the wind which flickers for a moment to be extinguished for ever.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2007, Pacific indigenous dialogue: on faith, peace, reconciliation and good governance, Alafua Campus,Continuing and Community Education Programme, University of the South Pacific, p. 192",
          "text": "Sometimes around here, it seems like hope is a candle in the wind."
        },
        {
          "ref": "2010, Phillip Dibble, The Fundamental Things, AuthorHouse, page 91:",
          "text": "Ethiopia is a candle in the wind, the winds of war and fate […]",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A fragile or vulnerable thing, likely to be put in jeopardy."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "fragile",
          "fragile"
        ],
        [
          "vulnerable",
          "vulnerable"
        ],
        [
          "jeopardy",
          "jeopardy"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) A fragile or vulnerable thing, likely to be put in jeopardy."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
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  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "cmn",
      "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
      "sense": "a fragile or vulnerable thing",
      "word": "風中之燭"
    },
    {
      "code": "cmn",
      "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
      "roman": "fēngzhōngzhīzhú",
      "sense": "a fragile or vulnerable thing",
      "word": "风中之烛"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "a fragile or vulnerable thing",
      "word": "kynttilänliekki"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "a fragile or vulnerable thing",
      "word": "korttitalo"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "a fragile or vulnerable thing",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "petite chose fragile"
    }
  ],
  "word": "candle in the wind"
}

Download raw JSONL data for candle in the wind meaning in English (3.6kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-11-06 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-10-02 using wiktextract (fbeafe8 and 7f03c9b). 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.