"end of the line" meaning in English

See end of the line in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Audio: en-au-end of the line.ogg [Australia] Forms: ends of the line [plural], ends of the lines [plural]
Head templates: {{en-noun|ends of the line|ends of the lines}} end of the line (plural ends of the line or ends of the lines)
  1. The termination point of a railway or similar transportation system. Translations (termination point of a railway or similar transportation system): terminus [masculine] (French), Endstation [feminine] (German), кінцева станція (kinceva stancija) [feminine] (Ukrainian)
    Sense id: en-end_of_the_line-en-noun-2msu3mbA Disambiguation of 'termination point of a railway or similar transportation system': 95 5
  2. (idiomatic) The final cessation or discontinuance of a process, institution, or person, especially one which has existed for a considerable period of time; death. Tags: idiomatic Synonyms: end of the road
    Sense id: en-end_of_the_line-en-noun-qWtbmd6L Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 3 97

Inflected forms

Download JSON data for end of the line meaning in English (3.0kB)

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "ends of the line",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "ends of the lines",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "ends of the line",
        "2": "ends of the lines"
      },
      "expansion": "end of the line (plural ends of the line or ends of the lines)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1898, Gertrude Franklin Horn Atherton, chapter 26, in The Californians",
          "text": "Sometimes she took the cable car to the end of the line, then walked to the Presidio.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "The termination point of a railway or similar transportation system."
      ],
      "id": "en-end_of_the_line-en-noun-2msu3mbA",
      "links": [
        [
          "termination",
          "termination"
        ],
        [
          "railway",
          "railway"
        ],
        [
          "transportation",
          "transportation"
        ]
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "_dis1": "95 5",
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "sense": "termination point of a railway or similar transportation system",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "terminus"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "95 5",
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "sense": "termination point of a railway or similar transportation system",
          "tags": [
            "feminine"
          ],
          "word": "Endstation"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "95 5",
          "code": "uk",
          "lang": "Ukrainian",
          "roman": "kinceva stancija",
          "sense": "termination point of a railway or similar transportation system",
          "tags": [
            "feminine"
          ],
          "word": "кінцева станція"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "3 97",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1967, Tommy Faile (lyrics and music), “Phantom 309”, performed by Red Sovine",
          "text": "Well, Joe lost control, went into a skid / And gave his life to save that bunch-a kids / And there at that crossroads, was the end of the line / For Big Joe and Phantom 309",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2008 April 5, AP/Matthew Rosenberg, “Nepal Prepares for End of Monarchy”, in Time",
          "text": "Gyanendra's 269-year-old Shah dynasty has reached the end of the line.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "The final cessation or discontinuance of a process, institution, or person, especially one which has existed for a considerable period of time; death."
      ],
      "id": "en-end_of_the_line-en-noun-qWtbmd6L",
      "links": [
        [
          "final",
          "final"
        ],
        [
          "cessation",
          "cessation"
        ],
        [
          "discontinuance",
          "discontinuance"
        ],
        [
          "process",
          "process"
        ],
        [
          "institution",
          "institution"
        ],
        [
          "death",
          "death"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) The final cessation or discontinuance of a process, institution, or person, especially one which has existed for a considerable period of time; death."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "end of the road"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "en-au-end of the line.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/5/53/En-au-end_of_the_line.ogg/En-au-end_of_the_line.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/53/En-au-end_of_the_line.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "word": "end of the line"
}
{
  "categories": [
    "English countable nouns",
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English nouns",
    "English terms with audio links"
  ],
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "ends of the line",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "ends of the lines",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "ends of the line",
        "2": "ends of the lines"
      },
      "expansion": "end of the line (plural ends of the line or ends of the lines)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with quotations",
        "Quotation templates to be cleaned"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1898, Gertrude Franklin Horn Atherton, chapter 26, in The Californians",
          "text": "Sometimes she took the cable car to the end of the line, then walked to the Presidio.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "The termination point of a railway or similar transportation system."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "termination",
          "termination"
        ],
        [
          "railway",
          "railway"
        ],
        [
          "transportation",
          "transportation"
        ]
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English idioms",
        "English terms with quotations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1967, Tommy Faile (lyrics and music), “Phantom 309”, performed by Red Sovine",
          "text": "Well, Joe lost control, went into a skid / And gave his life to save that bunch-a kids / And there at that crossroads, was the end of the line / For Big Joe and Phantom 309",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2008 April 5, AP/Matthew Rosenberg, “Nepal Prepares for End of Monarchy”, in Time",
          "text": "Gyanendra's 269-year-old Shah dynasty has reached the end of the line.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "The final cessation or discontinuance of a process, institution, or person, especially one which has existed for a considerable period of time; death."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "final",
          "final"
        ],
        [
          "cessation",
          "cessation"
        ],
        [
          "discontinuance",
          "discontinuance"
        ],
        [
          "process",
          "process"
        ],
        [
          "institution",
          "institution"
        ],
        [
          "death",
          "death"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) The final cessation or discontinuance of a process, institution, or person, especially one which has existed for a considerable period of time; death."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "end of the road"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "en-au-end of the line.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/5/53/En-au-end_of_the_line.ogg/En-au-end_of_the_line.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/53/En-au-end_of_the_line.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "termination point of a railway or similar transportation system",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "terminus"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "termination point of a railway or similar transportation system",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "Endstation"
    },
    {
      "code": "uk",
      "lang": "Ukrainian",
      "roman": "kinceva stancija",
      "sense": "termination point of a railway or similar transportation system",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "кінцева станція"
    }
  ],
  "word": "end of the line"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-04-30 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-04-21 using wiktextract (210104c 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.

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.