"feed the dragon" meaning in English

See feed the dragon in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Verb

Audio: en-au-feed the dragon.ogg Forms: feeds the dragon [present, singular, third-person], feeding the dragon [participle, present], fed the dragon [participle, past], fed the dragon [past]
Etymology: The dragon is a cultural symbol of China. Head templates: {{en-verb|feed<,,fed> the dragon}} feed the dragon (third-person singular simple present feeds the dragon, present participle feeding the dragon, simple past and past participle fed the dragon)
  1. (idiomatic) To outsource (jobs) to the People's Republic of China. Tags: idiomatic Categories (topical): Chinese politics
    Sense id: en-feed_the_dragon-en-verb-2vFEkPy2 Disambiguation of Chinese politics: 55 45 Categories (other): English predicates, China Disambiguation of English predicates: 53 47 Disambiguation of China: 51 49
  2. (idiomatic) To buy or sell products labeled as "Made in China." Tags: idiomatic Categories (topical): Business
    Sense id: en-feed_the_dragon-en-verb-dOZS59q8 Disambiguation of Business: 9 91 Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, English predicates, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries, China Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 23 77 Disambiguation of English predicates: 53 47 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 33 67 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 24 76 Disambiguation of China: 51 49

Inflected forms

{
  "etymology_text": "The dragon is a cultural symbol of China.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "feeds the dragon",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "feeding the dragon",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "fed the dragon",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "fed the dragon",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "feed<,,fed> the dragon"
      },
      "expansion": "feed the dragon (third-person singular simple present feeds the dragon, present participle feeding the dragon, simple past and past participle fed the dragon)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "53 47",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English predicates",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "51 49",
          "kind": "other",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "China",
          "orig": "en:China",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "55 45",
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Chinese politics",
          "orig": "en:Chinese politics",
          "parents": [
            "China",
            "Politics",
            "Society",
            "All topics",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To outsource (jobs) to the People's Republic of China."
      ],
      "id": "en-feed_the_dragon-en-verb-2vFEkPy2",
      "links": [
        [
          "People's Republic of China",
          "People's Republic of China"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) To outsource (jobs) to the People's Republic of China."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "23 77",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "53 47",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English predicates",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "33 67",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "24 76",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "51 49",
          "kind": "other",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "China",
          "orig": "en:China",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "9 91",
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Business",
          "orig": "en:Business",
          "parents": [
            "Economics",
            "Society",
            "Social sciences",
            "All topics",
            "Sciences",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To buy or sell products labeled as \"Made in China.\""
      ],
      "id": "en-feed_the_dragon-en-verb-dOZS59q8",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) To buy or sell products labeled as \"Made in China.\""
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "en-au-feed the dragon.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/a/a5/En-au-feed_the_dragon.ogg/En-au-feed_the_dragon.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a5/En-au-feed_the_dragon.ogg"
    }
  ],
  "word": "feed the dragon"
}
{
  "categories": [
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English predicates",
    "English verbs",
    "Pages with 1 entry",
    "Pages with entries",
    "en:Business",
    "en:China",
    "en:Chinese politics"
  ],
  "etymology_text": "The dragon is a cultural symbol of China.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "feeds the dragon",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "feeding the dragon",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "fed the dragon",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "fed the dragon",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "feed<,,fed> the dragon"
      },
      "expansion": "feed the dragon (third-person singular simple present feeds the dragon, present participle feeding the dragon, simple past and past participle fed the dragon)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English idioms"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To outsource (jobs) to the People's Republic of China."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "People's Republic of China",
          "People's Republic of China"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) To outsource (jobs) to the People's Republic of China."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English idioms"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To buy or sell products labeled as \"Made in China.\""
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) To buy or sell products labeled as \"Made in China.\""
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "en-au-feed the dragon.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/a/a5/En-au-feed_the_dragon.ogg/En-au-feed_the_dragon.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a5/En-au-feed_the_dragon.ogg"
    }
  ],
  "word": "feed the dragon"
}

Download raw JSONL data for feed the dragon meaning in English (1.7kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-04-26 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-04-20 using wiktextract (89e900c and ea19a0a). 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.