See cornfield meet in All languages combined, or Wiktionary
{
"etymology_text": "Either from the fact that early train collisions often occurred out in the country alongside a cornfield rather than in a station or siding; or from staged events where two old steam locomotives were purposely run head on at each other, often in an open field, for public entertainment. In the latter idea, the term may jocularly echo field meet as a spectacle in the field involving opposing contestants.",
"forms": [
{
"form": "cornfield meets",
"tags": [
"plural"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {},
"expansion": "cornfield meet (plural cornfield meets)",
"name": "en-noun"
}
],
"hyphenation": [
"corn‧field"
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "noun",
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "American English",
"parents": [],
"source": "w"
},
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
"parents": [
"Entries with incorrect language header",
"Entry maintenance"
],
"source": "w"
},
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "English euphemisms",
"parents": [],
"source": "w"
},
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "Entries with translation boxes",
"parents": [],
"source": "w"
},
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "Pages with 1 entry",
"parents": [],
"source": "w"
},
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "Pages with entries",
"parents": [],
"source": "w"
},
{
"kind": "topical",
"langcode": "en",
"name": "Rail transportation",
"orig": "en:Rail transportation",
"parents": [
"Transport",
"All topics",
"Fundamental"
],
"source": "w"
}
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1943, Railroad Magazine, volume 34, New York, N.Y.: Frank A[ndrew] Munsey Co., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 100, column 1:",
"text": "Do you think it's possible for two trains to have a cornfield meet right in the middle of an automatically protected block? Of course it is, if one of the hoggers is drunk or asleep at the throttle […]",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "1968, Robert C[arroll] Reed, “Head-on Collisions”, in Train Wrecks: A Pictorial History of Accidents on the Main Line, New York, N.Y.: Bonanza Books, Crown Publishing Group, →OCLC, page 55:",
"text": "One such instance when a conductor failed to follow a prescribed timetable resulted in a head-on smashup on the Long Island Railroad at the end of the Civil War. On August 28, 1865, General Grant and General Sherman collided in a pasture at Jamaica, New York. Five passengers were killed in this cornfield meet.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "1997, Jim Shaughnessy, “The Hunted Traps the Hunter”, in The Rutland Road, 2nd edition, Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press, →ISBN, page 26:",
"text": "[A] couple of passenger trains staged a cornfield meet in the deep cut on Mount Holly, which the road settled with \"gratuities\" amounting to $50,000. By this time the Rutland had built up enough fiancial stability to weather these incidents with a minimum of distress.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "1998, Ian Savage, “Preface”, in The Economics of Railroad Safety (Transportation Research, Economics and Policy; 7), New York, N.Y.: Springer Science+Business Media, →ISBN, page xi:",
"text": "One hundred years ago, staged railroad accidents were popular events. […] \"Head-on Joe\" Connolly made a business out of \"cornfield meets\" holding seventy-three events in thirty-six years.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2007, Eddie Campbell, The Black Diamond Detective Agency: Containing Mayhem, Mystery, Romance, Mine shafts, Bullets, New York, N.Y., London: First Second Books, →ISBN, page 137:",
"text": "[A 1899 man discovering ragtime:] Now they're writing music that sounds like a cornfield meet.",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"An accidental head-on collision or near head-on collision of two trains."
],
"id": "en-cornfield_meet-en-noun-OIlyEFur",
"links": [
[
"rail transport",
"rail transport"
],
[
"accidental",
"accidental"
],
[
"head-on collision",
"head-on collision"
],
[
"collision",
"collision"
],
[
"trains",
"train#Noun"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(US, rail transport, euphemistic) An accidental head-on collision or near head-on collision of two trains."
],
"related": [
{
"word": "train wreck"
}
],
"synonyms": [
{
"english": "hobo slang",
"sense": "collision",
"word": "prairie meet"
},
{
"sense": "near-collision",
"word": "Mexican standoff"
}
],
"tags": [
"US",
"euphemistic"
],
"topics": [
"rail-transport",
"railways",
"transport"
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"ipa": "/ˈkɔːnfiːld ˌmiːt/",
"tags": [
"Received-Pronunciation"
]
},
{
"audio": "En-uk-cornfield meet.ogg",
"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/b/ba/En-uk-cornfield_meet.ogg/En-uk-cornfield_meet.ogg.mp3",
"ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/ba/En-uk-cornfield_meet.ogg"
},
{
"ipa": "/ˈkɔɹnˌfild ˌmit/",
"tags": [
"General-American"
]
},
{
"audio": "En-us-cornfield meet.ogg",
"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/c/c3/En-us-cornfield_meet.ogg/En-us-cornfield_meet.ogg.mp3",
"ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c3/En-us-cornfield_meet.ogg"
},
{
"audio": "en-au-cornfield meet.ogg",
"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/6/6c/En-au-cornfield_meet.ogg/En-au-cornfield_meet.ogg.mp3",
"ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6c/En-au-cornfield_meet.ogg"
}
],
"word": "cornfield meet"
}
{
"etymology_text": "Either from the fact that early train collisions often occurred out in the country alongside a cornfield rather than in a station or siding; or from staged events where two old steam locomotives were purposely run head on at each other, often in an open field, for public entertainment. In the latter idea, the term may jocularly echo field meet as a spectacle in the field involving opposing contestants.",
"forms": [
{
"form": "cornfield meets",
"tags": [
"plural"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {},
"expansion": "cornfield meet (plural cornfield meets)",
"name": "en-noun"
}
],
"hyphenation": [
"corn‧field"
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "noun",
"related": [
{
"word": "train wreck"
}
],
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
"American English",
"English countable nouns",
"English entries with incorrect language header",
"English euphemisms",
"English lemmas",
"English multiword terms",
"English nouns",
"English terms with quotations",
"Entries with translation boxes",
"Pages with 1 entry",
"Pages with entries",
"en:Rail transportation"
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1943, Railroad Magazine, volume 34, New York, N.Y.: Frank A[ndrew] Munsey Co., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 100, column 1:",
"text": "Do you think it's possible for two trains to have a cornfield meet right in the middle of an automatically protected block? Of course it is, if one of the hoggers is drunk or asleep at the throttle […]",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "1968, Robert C[arroll] Reed, “Head-on Collisions”, in Train Wrecks: A Pictorial History of Accidents on the Main Line, New York, N.Y.: Bonanza Books, Crown Publishing Group, →OCLC, page 55:",
"text": "One such instance when a conductor failed to follow a prescribed timetable resulted in a head-on smashup on the Long Island Railroad at the end of the Civil War. On August 28, 1865, General Grant and General Sherman collided in a pasture at Jamaica, New York. Five passengers were killed in this cornfield meet.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "1997, Jim Shaughnessy, “The Hunted Traps the Hunter”, in The Rutland Road, 2nd edition, Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press, →ISBN, page 26:",
"text": "[A] couple of passenger trains staged a cornfield meet in the deep cut on Mount Holly, which the road settled with \"gratuities\" amounting to $50,000. By this time the Rutland had built up enough fiancial stability to weather these incidents with a minimum of distress.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "1998, Ian Savage, “Preface”, in The Economics of Railroad Safety (Transportation Research, Economics and Policy; 7), New York, N.Y.: Springer Science+Business Media, →ISBN, page xi:",
"text": "One hundred years ago, staged railroad accidents were popular events. […] \"Head-on Joe\" Connolly made a business out of \"cornfield meets\" holding seventy-three events in thirty-six years.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2007, Eddie Campbell, The Black Diamond Detective Agency: Containing Mayhem, Mystery, Romance, Mine shafts, Bullets, New York, N.Y., London: First Second Books, →ISBN, page 137:",
"text": "[A 1899 man discovering ragtime:] Now they're writing music that sounds like a cornfield meet.",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"An accidental head-on collision or near head-on collision of two trains."
],
"links": [
[
"rail transport",
"rail transport"
],
[
"accidental",
"accidental"
],
[
"head-on collision",
"head-on collision"
],
[
"collision",
"collision"
],
[
"trains",
"train#Noun"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(US, rail transport, euphemistic) An accidental head-on collision or near head-on collision of two trains."
],
"tags": [
"US",
"euphemistic"
],
"topics": [
"rail-transport",
"railways",
"transport"
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"ipa": "/ˈkɔːnfiːld ˌmiːt/",
"tags": [
"Received-Pronunciation"
]
},
{
"audio": "En-uk-cornfield meet.ogg",
"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/b/ba/En-uk-cornfield_meet.ogg/En-uk-cornfield_meet.ogg.mp3",
"ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/ba/En-uk-cornfield_meet.ogg"
},
{
"ipa": "/ˈkɔɹnˌfild ˌmit/",
"tags": [
"General-American"
]
},
{
"audio": "En-us-cornfield meet.ogg",
"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/c/c3/En-us-cornfield_meet.ogg/En-us-cornfield_meet.ogg.mp3",
"ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c3/En-us-cornfield_meet.ogg"
},
{
"audio": "en-au-cornfield meet.ogg",
"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/6/6c/En-au-cornfield_meet.ogg/En-au-cornfield_meet.ogg.mp3",
"ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6c/En-au-cornfield_meet.ogg"
}
],
"synonyms": [
{
"english": "hobo slang",
"sense": "collision",
"word": "prairie meet"
},
{
"sense": "near-collision",
"word": "Mexican standoff"
}
],
"word": "cornfield meet"
}
Download raw JSONL data for cornfield meet meaning in English (4.7kB)
This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-12-15 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-12-04 using wiktextract (8a39820 and 4401a4c). 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.