"donkey's ears" meaning in English

See donkey's ears in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Audio: en-au-donkey's ears.ogg [Australia]
Etymology: 1916 UK, from British rhyming slang, rhyming with years, due to donkey’s ears being long. Etymology templates: {{m|en|years}} years Head templates: {{en-noun|p|head=donkey's ears}} donkey's ears pl (plural only)
  1. (British, idiomatic) A long time, years and years. Tags: British, idiomatic, plural, plural-only
    Sense id: en-donkey's_ears-en-noun-VObR5FFR Categories (other): British English
  2. (military, slang) A pair of scissor binoculars. Tags: plural, plural-only, slang Categories (topical): Military Synonyms: ages, donkey's years, years and years, yonks Derived forms: donkey's years
    Sense id: en-donkey's_ears-en-noun-Nvcj5DoX Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, English pluralia tantum Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 26 74 Disambiguation of English pluralia tantum: 23 77 Topics: government, military, politics, war

Download JSON data for donkey's ears meaning in English (2.3kB)

{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "years"
      },
      "expansion": "years",
      "name": "m"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "1916 UK, from British rhyming slang, rhyming with years, due to donkey’s ears being long.",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "p",
        "head": "donkey's ears"
      },
      "expansion": "donkey's ears pl (plural only)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "British English",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1916, E. V. Lucas, The Vermilion Box",
          "text": "Now for my first bath for what the men call ‘Donkey’s ears’, meaning years and years."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A long time, years and years."
      ],
      "id": "en-donkey's_ears-en-noun-VObR5FFR",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(British, idiomatic) A long time, years and years."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "British",
        "idiomatic",
        "plural",
        "plural-only"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Military",
          "orig": "en:Military",
          "parents": [
            "Society",
            "All topics",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "26 74",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "23 77",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English pluralia tantum",
          "parents": [
            "Pluralia tantum",
            "Nouns",
            "Lemmas"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "derived": [
        {
          "_dis1": "31 69",
          "word": "donkey's years"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A pair of scissor binoculars."
      ],
      "id": "en-donkey's_ears-en-noun-Nvcj5DoX",
      "links": [
        [
          "military",
          "military"
        ],
        [
          "scissor binoculars",
          "scissor binoculars"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(military, slang) A pair of scissor binoculars."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "_dis1": "32 68",
          "word": "ages"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "32 68",
          "word": "donkey's years"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "32 68",
          "word": "years and years"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "32 68",
          "word": "yonks"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "plural",
        "plural-only",
        "slang"
      ],
      "topics": [
        "government",
        "military",
        "politics",
        "war"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "en-au-donkey's ears.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/2/2d/En-au-donkey%27s_ears.ogg/En-au-donkey%27s_ears.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2d/En-au-donkey%27s_ears.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "wikipedia": [
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  "word": "donkey's ears"
}
{
  "categories": [
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English nouns",
    "English pluralia tantum",
    "English terms with audio links"
  ],
  "derived": [
    {
      "word": "donkey's years"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "years"
      },
      "expansion": "years",
      "name": "m"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "1916 UK, from British rhyming slang, rhyming with years, due to donkey’s ears being long.",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "p",
        "head": "donkey's ears"
      },
      "expansion": "donkey's ears pl (plural only)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "British English",
        "English idioms"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1916, E. V. Lucas, The Vermilion Box",
          "text": "Now for my first bath for what the men call ‘Donkey’s ears’, meaning years and years."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A long time, years and years."
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(British, idiomatic) A long time, years and years."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "British",
        "idiomatic",
        "plural",
        "plural-only"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English slang",
        "en:Military"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A pair of scissor binoculars."
      ],
      "links": [
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          "military",
          "military"
        ],
        [
          "scissor binoculars",
          "scissor binoculars"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(military, slang) A pair of scissor binoculars."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "plural",
        "plural-only",
        "slang"
      ],
      "topics": [
        "government",
        "military",
        "politics",
        "war"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "en-au-donkey's ears.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/2/2d/En-au-donkey%27s_ears.ogg/En-au-donkey%27s_ears.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2d/En-au-donkey%27s_ears.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "ages"
    },
    {
      "word": "donkey's years"
    },
    {
      "word": "years and years"
    },
    {
      "word": "yonks"
    }
  ],
  "wikipedia": [
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  ],
  "word": "donkey's ears"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-20 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-05-02 using wiktextract (1d5a7d1 and 304864d). 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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