See change horses in midstream in All languages combined, or Wiktionary
{
"etymology_text": "Popularized by Abraham Lincoln.",
"forms": [
{
"form": "changes horses in midstream",
"tags": [
"present",
"singular",
"third-person"
]
},
{
"form": "changing horses in midstream",
"tags": [
"participle",
"present"
]
},
{
"form": "changed horses in midstream",
"tags": [
"participle",
"past"
]
},
{
"form": "changed horses in midstream",
"tags": [
"past"
]
},
{
"form": "swap horses in midstream",
"tags": [
"alternative"
]
},
{
"form": "change horses in mid-stream",
"tags": [
"alternative"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
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"1": "*",
"head": "change horses in midstream"
},
"expansion": "change horses in midstream (third-person singular simple present changes horses in midstream, present participle changing horses in midstream, simple past and past participle changed horses in midstream)",
"name": "en-verb"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "verb",
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"examples": [
{
"ref": "1975, Bob Dylan (lyrics and music), “You're a Big Girl Now”, in Blood on the Tracks:",
"text": "A change in the weather is known to be extreme / But what's the sense of changing horses in midstream?",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"To change one's plan or approach when an effort is already underway or at another inopportune time."
],
"id": "en-change_horses_in_midstream-en-verb-JTq4wAUh",
"links": [
[
"plan",
"plan"
],
[
"approach",
"approach"
],
[
"underway",
"underway"
],
[
"inopportune",
"inopportune"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(idiomatic) To change one's plan or approach when an effort is already underway or at another inopportune time."
],
"tags": [
"idiomatic"
],
"translations": [
{
"code": "cmn",
"lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
"sense": "to change one's plan when an effort is already underway",
"word": "陣前換帥, 臨敵易將 /阵前换帅"
},
{
"code": "cmn",
"lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
"sense": "to change one's plan when an effort is already underway",
"word": "临敌易将"
},
{
"code": "cmn",
"lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
"roman": "bàntú'érfèi",
"sense": "to change one's plan when an effort is already underway",
"word": "半途而废"
},
{
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"sense": "to change one's plan when an effort is already underway",
"word": "muuttaa mieltään kesken kaiken"
},
{
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"sense": "to change one's plan when an effort is already underway",
"word": "muuttaa suunnitelmia kesken kaiken"
},
{
"code": "fr",
"lang": "French",
"sense": "to change one's plan when an effort is already underway",
"word": "changer de cheval au milieu du gué"
},
{
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "to change one's plan when an effort is already underway",
"word": "mitten im Strom die Pferde wechseln"
},
{
"code": "it",
"lang": "Italian",
"sense": "to change one's plan when an effort is already underway",
"word": "squadra che vince non si cambia"
},
{
"code": "lv",
"lang": "Latvian",
"sense": "to change one's plan when an effort is already underway",
"word": "mainīt zirgus upes vidū"
},
{
"code": "pl",
"lang": "Polish",
"sense": "to change one's plan when an effort is already underway",
"tags": [
"imperfective"
],
"word": "zmieniać plan w połowie"
},
{
"code": "pl",
"lang": "Polish",
"sense": "to change one's plan when an effort is already underway",
"tags": [
"perfective"
],
"word": "zmienić plan w połowie"
},
{
"code": "ru",
"lang": "Russian",
"roman": "menjátʹ konéj na perepráve",
"sense": "to change one's plan when an effort is already underway",
"word": "меня́ть коне́й на перепра́ве"
},
{
"code": "uk",
"lang": "Ukrainian",
"roman": "xto kóni minjáje - tomú xomút huljáje",
"sense": "to change one's plan when an effort is already underway",
"word": "хто ко́ні міня́є - тому́ хому́т гуля́є"
},
{
"code": "uk",
"lang": "Ukrainian",
"roman": "minjáty konéj na pereprávi",
"sense": "to change one's plan when an effort is already underway",
"word": "міня́ти коне́й на перепра́ві"
}
],
"wikipedia": [
"Abraham Lincoln"
]
}
],
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],
"word": "change horses in midstream"
}
{
"etymology_text": "Popularized by Abraham Lincoln.",
"forms": [
{
"form": "changes horses in midstream",
"tags": [
"present",
"singular",
"third-person"
]
},
{
"form": "changing horses in midstream",
"tags": [
"participle",
"present"
]
},
{
"form": "changed horses in midstream",
"tags": [
"participle",
"past"
]
},
{
"form": "changed horses in midstream",
"tags": [
"past"
]
},
{
"form": "swap horses in midstream",
"tags": [
"alternative"
]
},
{
"form": "change horses in mid-stream",
"tags": [
"alternative"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "*",
"head": "change horses in midstream"
},
"expansion": "change horses in midstream (third-person singular simple present changes horses in midstream, present participle changing horses in midstream, simple past and past participle changed horses in midstream)",
"name": "en-verb"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "verb",
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
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"English idioms",
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"Terms with Mandarin translations",
"Terms with Polish translations",
"Terms with Russian translations",
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],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1975, Bob Dylan (lyrics and music), “You're a Big Girl Now”, in Blood on the Tracks:",
"text": "A change in the weather is known to be extreme / But what's the sense of changing horses in midstream?",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"To change one's plan or approach when an effort is already underway or at another inopportune time."
],
"links": [
[
"plan",
"plan"
],
[
"approach",
"approach"
],
[
"underway",
"underway"
],
[
"inopportune",
"inopportune"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(idiomatic) To change one's plan or approach when an effort is already underway or at another inopportune time."
],
"tags": [
"idiomatic"
],
"wikipedia": [
"Abraham Lincoln"
]
}
],
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"translations": [
{
"code": "cmn",
"lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
"sense": "to change one's plan when an effort is already underway",
"word": "陣前換帥, 臨敵易將 /阵前换帅"
},
{
"code": "cmn",
"lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
"sense": "to change one's plan when an effort is already underway",
"word": "临敌易将"
},
{
"code": "cmn",
"lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
"roman": "bàntú'érfèi",
"sense": "to change one's plan when an effort is already underway",
"word": "半途而废"
},
{
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"sense": "to change one's plan when an effort is already underway",
"word": "muuttaa mieltään kesken kaiken"
},
{
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"sense": "to change one's plan when an effort is already underway",
"word": "muuttaa suunnitelmia kesken kaiken"
},
{
"code": "fr",
"lang": "French",
"sense": "to change one's plan when an effort is already underway",
"word": "changer de cheval au milieu du gué"
},
{
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "to change one's plan when an effort is already underway",
"word": "mitten im Strom die Pferde wechseln"
},
{
"code": "it",
"lang": "Italian",
"sense": "to change one's plan when an effort is already underway",
"word": "squadra che vince non si cambia"
},
{
"code": "lv",
"lang": "Latvian",
"sense": "to change one's plan when an effort is already underway",
"word": "mainīt zirgus upes vidū"
},
{
"code": "pl",
"lang": "Polish",
"sense": "to change one's plan when an effort is already underway",
"tags": [
"imperfective"
],
"word": "zmieniać plan w połowie"
},
{
"code": "pl",
"lang": "Polish",
"sense": "to change one's plan when an effort is already underway",
"tags": [
"perfective"
],
"word": "zmienić plan w połowie"
},
{
"code": "ru",
"lang": "Russian",
"roman": "menjátʹ konéj na perepráve",
"sense": "to change one's plan when an effort is already underway",
"word": "меня́ть коне́й на перепра́ве"
},
{
"code": "uk",
"lang": "Ukrainian",
"roman": "xto kóni minjáje - tomú xomút huljáje",
"sense": "to change one's plan when an effort is already underway",
"word": "хто ко́ні міня́є - тому́ хому́т гуля́є"
},
{
"code": "uk",
"lang": "Ukrainian",
"roman": "minjáty konéj na pereprávi",
"sense": "to change one's plan when an effort is already underway",
"word": "міня́ти коне́й на перепра́ві"
}
],
"word": "change horses in midstream"
}
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This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-03-21 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-03-02 using wiktextract (db0bec0 and 633533e). 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.