"embarrassment of riches" meaning in English

See embarrassment of riches in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Audio: en-au-embarrassment of riches.ogg [Australia] Forms: embarrassments of riches [plural]
Etymology: From John Ozell's 1738 translation of a French play, L'Embarras des richesses (1726) by Léonor Jean Christine Soulas d'Allainval. Head templates: {{en-noun|embarrassments of riches}} embarrassment of riches (plural embarrassments of riches)
  1. (idiomatic) An abundance or overabundance of something; too much of a good thing. Tags: idiomatic Translations (too much of a good thing): runsaudenpula (Finnish), embarras du choix [masculine] (French), Qual der Wahl [feminine] (German), צרות של עשירים (Hebrew), imbarazzo della scelta [masculine] (Italian), klęska urodzaju [feminine] (Polish), embarras de richesse (english: unadapted borrowing) (Polish)
    Sense id: en-embarrassment_of_riches-en-noun-Ucf4hTy9 Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header

Inflected forms

Download JSON data for embarrassment of riches meaning in English (2.8kB)

{
  "etymology_text": "From John Ozell's 1738 translation of a French play, L'Embarras des richesses (1726) by Léonor Jean Christine Soulas d'Allainval.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "embarrassments of riches",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "embarrassments of riches"
      },
      "expansion": "embarrassment of riches (plural embarrassments of riches)",
      "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"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1908, Myrtle Reed, chapter 23, in Flower of the Dusk",
          "text": "Roger was in the library, trying to choose, from an embarrassment of riches, the ten of his father's books which he was to be permitted to take to the city.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2006 January 8, Daniel Ginsberg, “Opera in Berlin: A Staat of Flux”, in Washington Post, page N06",
          "text": "What might be an embarrassment of riches—a city with three independent and artistically distinct opera companies—may become a lose-lose-lose situation.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "An abundance or overabundance of something; too much of a good thing."
      ],
      "id": "en-embarrassment_of_riches-en-noun-Ucf4hTy9",
      "links": [
        [
          "abundance",
          "abundance"
        ],
        [
          "overabundance",
          "overabundance"
        ],
        [
          "too much of a good thing",
          "too much of a good thing"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) An abundance or overabundance of something; too much of a good thing."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "too much of a good thing",
          "word": "runsaudenpula"
        },
        {
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "sense": "too much of a good thing",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "embarras du choix"
        },
        {
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "sense": "too much of a good thing",
          "tags": [
            "feminine"
          ],
          "word": "Qual der Wahl"
        },
        {
          "code": "he",
          "lang": "Hebrew",
          "sense": "too much of a good thing",
          "word": "צרות של עשירים"
        },
        {
          "code": "it",
          "lang": "Italian",
          "sense": "too much of a good thing",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "imbarazzo della scelta"
        },
        {
          "code": "pl",
          "lang": "Polish",
          "sense": "too much of a good thing",
          "tags": [
            "feminine"
          ],
          "word": "klęska urodzaju"
        },
        {
          "code": "pl",
          "english": "unadapted borrowing",
          "lang": "Polish",
          "sense": "too much of a good thing",
          "word": "embarras de richesse"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "en-au-embarrassment of riches.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/f/f1/En-au-embarrassment_of_riches.ogg/En-au-embarrassment_of_riches.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f1/En-au-embarrassment_of_riches.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "word": "embarrassment of riches"
}
{
  "etymology_text": "From John Ozell's 1738 translation of a French play, L'Embarras des richesses (1726) by Léonor Jean Christine Soulas d'Allainval.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "embarrassments of riches",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "embarrassments of riches"
      },
      "expansion": "embarrassment of riches (plural embarrassments of riches)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English countable nouns",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English idioms",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English nouns",
        "English terms with audio links",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "Quotation templates to be cleaned"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1908, Myrtle Reed, chapter 23, in Flower of the Dusk",
          "text": "Roger was in the library, trying to choose, from an embarrassment of riches, the ten of his father's books which he was to be permitted to take to the city.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2006 January 8, Daniel Ginsberg, “Opera in Berlin: A Staat of Flux”, in Washington Post, page N06",
          "text": "What might be an embarrassment of riches—a city with three independent and artistically distinct opera companies—may become a lose-lose-lose situation.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "An abundance or overabundance of something; too much of a good thing."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "abundance",
          "abundance"
        ],
        [
          "overabundance",
          "overabundance"
        ],
        [
          "too much of a good thing",
          "too much of a good thing"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) An abundance or overabundance of something; too much of a good thing."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "en-au-embarrassment of riches.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/f/f1/En-au-embarrassment_of_riches.ogg/En-au-embarrassment_of_riches.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f1/En-au-embarrassment_of_riches.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "too much of a good thing",
      "word": "runsaudenpula"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "too much of a good thing",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "embarras du choix"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "too much of a good thing",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "Qual der Wahl"
    },
    {
      "code": "he",
      "lang": "Hebrew",
      "sense": "too much of a good thing",
      "word": "צרות של עשירים"
    },
    {
      "code": "it",
      "lang": "Italian",
      "sense": "too much of a good thing",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "imbarazzo della scelta"
    },
    {
      "code": "pl",
      "lang": "Polish",
      "sense": "too much of a good thing",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "klęska urodzaju"
    },
    {
      "code": "pl",
      "english": "unadapted borrowing",
      "lang": "Polish",
      "sense": "too much of a good thing",
      "word": "embarras de richesse"
    }
  ],
  "word": "embarrassment of riches"
}

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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