See file off the serial numbers in All languages combined, or Wiktionary
{
"etymology_text": "From the practice of filing the serial numbers off of firearms in order to make their origin and ownership difficult to trace.",
"forms": [
{
"form": "files off the serial numbers",
"tags": [
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"singular",
"third-person"
]
},
{
"form": "filing off the serial numbers",
"tags": [
"participle",
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},
{
"form": "filed off the serial numbers",
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{
"form": "filed off the serial numbers",
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}
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},
"expansion": "file off the serial numbers (third-person singular simple present files off the serial numbers, present participle filing off the serial numbers, simple past and past participle filed off the serial numbers)",
"name": "en-verb"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "verb",
"senses": [
{
"categories": [],
"examples": [
{
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52,
81
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],
"ref": "1973, Robert Anson Heinlein, Time Enough for Love:",
"text": "[…] that song belonged to Noisy when he got through filing off the serial numbers and changing the body lines. I heard it again, oh, must have been twenty, twenty-five years later, in a cabaret in Luna City. From Noisy. But he had changed it. Fixed up the scansion, given it a proper rhyme scheme, dolled up the tune.",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"To alter identifiable details in a creative work in order to conceal its origin."
],
"id": "en-file_off_the_serial_numbers-en-verb-G26zEdii",
"raw_glosses": [
"(idiomatic) To alter identifiable details in a creative work in order to conceal its origin."
],
"tags": [
"idiomatic"
]
},
{
"categories": [
{
"_dis": "30 70",
"kind": "other",
"name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
"parents": [],
"source": "w+disamb"
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{
"_dis": "18 82",
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{
"_dis": "15 85",
"kind": "other",
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"source": "w+disamb"
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{
"_dis": "31 69",
"kind": "other",
"langcode": "en",
"name": "Copyright",
"orig": "en:Copyright",
"parents": [],
"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "4 96",
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"name": "Fan fiction",
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"source": "w+disamb"
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"examples": [
{
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140,
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],
"ref": "1998 March 6, Julie Lim, “Help!”, in rec.arts.sf.composition (Usenet):",
"text": "For a while now, I've been pottering away at a Star Wars fanfic novella ([URL redacted], if you must know). I've received a few pokes about filing off the serial numbers and trying to sell it as an independent work.",
"type": "quotation"
},
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"ref": "2002 January 15, David Thornley, “Re: harry potter”, in rec.games.int-fiction (Usenet):",
"text": "I've heard a rumor that Bujold started the Barrayar series as Star Trek fanfic, and there's enough resemblance there to make that seem very plausible to me. Suppose she did. By filing off the serial numbers, she was able to make the universe her own, to change as she needed to.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"bold_text_offsets": [
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44,
72
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],
"ref": "2012 April 1, Elizabeth Tai, “Quantity over quality?”, in The Star, Malaysia:",
"text": "I say “may have” because [E. L.] James has “filed off the serial numbers” of her fanfic.",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"To alter identifiable details in a creative work in order to conceal its origin.",
"Especially, to remove the copyrighted elements from an existing work of fan fiction so that it may be commercially published as original fiction."
],
"hypernyms": [
{
"_dis1": "42 58",
"word": "pull-to-publish"
}
],
"id": "en-file_off_the_serial_numbers-en-verb-PD5SMGAb",
"links": [
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[
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[
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[
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],
[
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],
"raw_glosses": [
"(idiomatic) To alter identifiable details in a creative work in order to conceal its origin.",
"(fandom slang) Especially, to remove the copyrighted elements from an existing work of fan fiction so that it may be commercially published as original fiction."
],
"tags": [
"idiomatic",
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],
"topics": [
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"sounds": [
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"word": "file off the serial numbers"
}
{
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"English lemmas",
"English multiword terms",
"English verbs",
"Pages with 1 entry",
"Pages with entries",
"en:Copyright",
"en:Fan fiction"
],
"etymology_text": "From the practice of filing the serial numbers off of firearms in order to make their origin and ownership difficult to trace.",
"forms": [
{
"form": "files off the serial numbers",
"tags": [
"present",
"singular",
"third-person"
]
},
{
"form": "filing off the serial numbers",
"tags": [
"participle",
"present"
]
},
{
"form": "filed off the serial numbers",
"tags": [
"participle",
"past"
]
},
{
"form": "filed off the serial numbers",
"tags": [
"past"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "*"
},
"expansion": "file off the serial numbers (third-person singular simple present files off the serial numbers, present participle filing off the serial numbers, simple past and past participle filed off the serial numbers)",
"name": "en-verb"
}
],
"hypernyms": [
{
"word": "pull-to-publish"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "verb",
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],
"ref": "1973, Robert Anson Heinlein, Time Enough for Love:",
"text": "[…] that song belonged to Noisy when he got through filing off the serial numbers and changing the body lines. I heard it again, oh, must have been twenty, twenty-five years later, in a cabaret in Luna City. From Noisy. But he had changed it. Fixed up the scansion, given it a proper rhyme scheme, dolled up the tune.",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"To alter identifiable details in a creative work in order to conceal its origin."
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(idiomatic) To alter identifiable details in a creative work in order to conceal its origin."
],
"tags": [
"idiomatic"
]
},
{
"categories": [
"English fandom slang",
"English idioms",
"English terms with quotations"
],
"examples": [
{
"bold_text_offsets": [
[
140,
169
]
],
"ref": "1998 March 6, Julie Lim, “Help!”, in rec.arts.sf.composition (Usenet):",
"text": "For a while now, I've been pottering away at a Star Wars fanfic novella ([URL redacted], if you must know). I've received a few pokes about filing off the serial numbers and trying to sell it as an independent work.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"bold_text_offsets": [
[
177,
206
]
],
"ref": "2002 January 15, David Thornley, “Re: harry potter”, in rec.games.int-fiction (Usenet):",
"text": "I've heard a rumor that Bujold started the Barrayar series as Star Trek fanfic, and there's enough resemblance there to make that seem very plausible to me. Suppose she did. By filing off the serial numbers, she was able to make the universe her own, to change as she needed to.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"bold_text_offsets": [
[
44,
72
]
],
"ref": "2012 April 1, Elizabeth Tai, “Quantity over quality?”, in The Star, Malaysia:",
"text": "I say “may have” because [E. L.] James has “filed off the serial numbers” of her fanfic.",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"To alter identifiable details in a creative work in order to conceal its origin.",
"Especially, to remove the copyrighted elements from an existing work of fan fiction so that it may be commercially published as original fiction."
],
"links": [
[
"fandom",
"fandom"
],
[
"copyrighted",
"copyrighted"
],
[
"fan fiction",
"fan fiction"
],
[
"commercially",
"commercially"
],
[
"published",
"published"
],
[
"original",
"original"
],
[
"fiction",
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]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(idiomatic) To alter identifiable details in a creative work in order to conceal its origin.",
"(fandom slang) Especially, to remove the copyrighted elements from an existing work of fan fiction so that it may be commercially published as original fiction."
],
"tags": [
"idiomatic",
"slang"
],
"topics": [
"lifestyle"
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"audio": "en-au-file off the serial numbers.ogg",
"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/2/23/En-au-file_off_the_serial_numbers.ogg/En-au-file_off_the_serial_numbers.ogg.mp3",
"ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/23/En-au-file_off_the_serial_numbers.ogg"
}
],
"word": "file off the serial numbers"
}
Download raw JSONL data for file off the serial numbers meaning in English (4.1kB)
This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2026-03-25 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2026-03-03 using wiktextract (05c257f and 9d9a410). 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.