"clown-car primary" meaning in English

See clown-car primary in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

IPA: /ˈklaʊn kɑɹ ˌpɹaɪməɹi/ [US] Forms: clown-car primaries [plural]
Etymology: From clown car + primary. Etymology templates: {{compound|en|clown car|primary}} clown car + primary Head templates: {{en-noun}} clown-car primary (plural clown-car primaries)
  1. (US politics, chiefly derogatory) A primary election with a large number of serious candidates, usually more than four, making it possible that the winner will have been chosen by only a small portion of the electorate. Tags: US, derogatory Categories (topical): US politics
    Sense id: en-clown-car_primary-en-noun-5wf9f106 Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header Topics: government, politics

Inflected forms

Download JSON data for clown-car primary meaning in English (2.3kB)

{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "clown car",
        "3": "primary"
      },
      "expansion": "clown car + primary",
      "name": "compound"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From clown car + primary.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "clown-car primaries",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "clown-car primary (plural clown-car primaries)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "US politics",
          "orig": "en:US politics",
          "parents": [
            "Politics",
            "United States",
            "Society",
            "North America",
            "All topics",
            "America",
            "Fundamental",
            "Earth",
            "Nature"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "2016, Joshua Holland, The Nation, \"Big GOP Donors Are to Blame for Their Party's Clown-Car Primary\"\nThey can shake their heads over the seething anger in the Republican electorate, but this nasty and never-ending \"clown car primary\" is a problem of their own creation."
        },
        {
          "ref": "2015, Michael Page, This Is Your Government On Drugs, Xlibris Corporation, page 282",
          "text": "The Republicans held a clown-car primary in 2012 with a dozen debates where their credo of hewing to the party line (more conservative than thou) prevented any candidate from emerging looking presidential.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "text": "2012, Jon Ponder, Pensito Review, Two Months into Republicans' Clown Car Primary, WSJ/NBC Poll Finds Voters Turning against the GOP - Again:",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A primary election with a large number of serious candidates, usually more than four, making it possible that the winner will have been chosen by only a small portion of the electorate."
      ],
      "id": "en-clown-car_primary-en-noun-5wf9f106",
      "links": [
        [
          "derogatory",
          "derogatory"
        ],
        [
          "primary election",
          "primary election"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(US politics, chiefly derogatory) A primary election with a large number of serious candidates, usually more than four, making it possible that the winner will have been chosen by only a small portion of the electorate."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "US",
        "derogatory"
      ],
      "topics": [
        "government",
        "politics"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈklaʊn kɑɹ ˌpɹaɪməɹi/",
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "clown-car primary"
}
{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "clown car",
        "3": "primary"
      },
      "expansion": "clown car + primary",
      "name": "compound"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From clown car + primary.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "clown-car primaries",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "clown-car primary (plural clown-car primaries)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English compound terms",
        "English countable nouns",
        "English derogatory terms",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English nouns",
        "English terms with IPA pronunciation",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "Quotation templates to be cleaned",
        "en:US politics"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "2016, Joshua Holland, The Nation, \"Big GOP Donors Are to Blame for Their Party's Clown-Car Primary\"\nThey can shake their heads over the seething anger in the Republican electorate, but this nasty and never-ending \"clown car primary\" is a problem of their own creation."
        },
        {
          "ref": "2015, Michael Page, This Is Your Government On Drugs, Xlibris Corporation, page 282",
          "text": "The Republicans held a clown-car primary in 2012 with a dozen debates where their credo of hewing to the party line (more conservative than thou) prevented any candidate from emerging looking presidential.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "text": "2012, Jon Ponder, Pensito Review, Two Months into Republicans' Clown Car Primary, WSJ/NBC Poll Finds Voters Turning against the GOP - Again:",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A primary election with a large number of serious candidates, usually more than four, making it possible that the winner will have been chosen by only a small portion of the electorate."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "derogatory",
          "derogatory"
        ],
        [
          "primary election",
          "primary election"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(US politics, chiefly derogatory) A primary election with a large number of serious candidates, usually more than four, making it possible that the winner will have been chosen by only a small portion of the electorate."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "US",
        "derogatory"
      ],
      "topics": [
        "government",
        "politics"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈklaʊn kɑɹ ˌpɹaɪməɹi/",
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "clown-car primary"
}

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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