See gingerbread office in All languages combined, or Wiktionary
{
"etymology_text": "From gingerbread (“in its figurative use as ersatz or unpleasant”) + office (“place to fulfill one's obligations; place of business”)",
"forms": [
{
"form": "gingerbread offices",
"tags": [
"plural"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {},
"expansion": "gingerbread office (plural gingerbread offices)",
"name": "en-noun"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "noun",
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "English euphemisms",
"parents": [],
"source": "w"
}
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "a. 1643, William Cartwright, Lady-Errant, Act V, Scene i:",
"text": "There's no great need of Souldiers;\nTheir Camp's No larger than a Ginger-bread Office.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2001, Chris Mounsey, Christopher Smart: Clown of God, page 192:",
"text": "\"Gingerbread office\" was an eighteenth-century slang term for public toilets, which were, Norton argues, meeting places for homosexuals to engage in sexual encounters. \"Gingerbread-kake\" and \"ginger-bred queen\" suggest what may happen in the \"office\" and name those involved.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2013, Noel Chevalier, “Breaking the Circle of the Sciences”, in Reading Christopher Smart in the Twenty-First Century, page 139:",
"text": "Mounsey also suggests that one poem in the volume further links Smart with homosexuality in its use of the term \"gingerbread-office\" as slang for a public toilet used for gay sexual encounters... If Mounsey is correct, then the later History of Giles Gingerbread may contain more than meets the eye, especially since its final poem is signed with the known Smart pseudonym, Tom Tagg.",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"An outhouse: an outbuilding used as a lavatory."
],
"id": "en-gingerbread_office-en-noun-D9AmRojQ",
"links": [
[
"outhouse",
"outhouse"
],
[
"outbuilding",
"outbuilding"
],
[
"use",
"use"
],
[
"lavatory",
"lavatory"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(obsolete, euphemistic slang) An outhouse: an outbuilding used as a lavatory."
],
"tags": [
"euphemistic",
"obsolete",
"slang"
]
},
{
"categories": [
{
"kind": "topical",
"langcode": "en",
"name": "Architecture",
"orig": "en:Architecture",
"parents": [
"Applied sciences",
"Art",
"Sciences",
"Culture",
"All topics",
"Society",
"Fundamental"
],
"source": "w"
},
{
"_dis": "29 71",
"kind": "other",
"name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
"parents": [
"Entries with incorrect language header",
"Entry maintenance"
],
"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "26 74",
"kind": "other",
"name": "Pages with 1 entry",
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},
{
"_dis": "15 85",
"kind": "other",
"name": "Pages with entries",
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"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "33 67",
"kind": "topical",
"langcode": "en",
"name": "Buildings",
"orig": "en:Buildings",
"parents": [
"Buildings and structures",
"Architecture",
"Applied sciences",
"Art",
"Sciences",
"Culture",
"All topics",
"Society",
"Fundamental"
],
"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "32 68",
"kind": "topical",
"langcode": "en",
"name": "Rooms",
"orig": "en:Rooms",
"parents": [
"Buildings and structures",
"Architecture",
"Applied sciences",
"Art",
"Sciences",
"Culture",
"All topics",
"Society",
"Fundamental"
],
"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "31 69",
"kind": "topical",
"langcode": "en",
"name": "Toilet (room)",
"orig": "en:Toilet (room)",
"parents": [
"Hygiene",
"Rooms",
"Health",
"Buildings and structures",
"Body",
"Architecture",
"All topics",
"Applied sciences",
"Art",
"Fundamental",
"Sciences",
"Culture",
"Society"
],
"source": "w+disamb"
}
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1968, The Discovery of Drama, page 378:",
"text": "Morley: A year and a half ago I stumbled into your gingerbread office, a lost, frightened soul in terrified flight across the great yawning terror of doubt—a human being, in short!—and you chanted some hagridden formulas and danged some fylfots...",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "1975, Dental Survey, volume 51, page 92:",
"text": "The conversion of an old bungalow into a \"gingerbread office\" has brought to life a 13-year dream of mine.",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"An office in the gingerbread Victorian style."
],
"id": "en-gingerbread_office-en-noun-7Kv0AkI7",
"links": [
[
"architecture",
"architecture"
],
[
"office",
"office"
],
[
"gingerbread",
"gingerbread"
],
[
"Victorian",
"Victorian"
],
[
"style",
"style"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(architecture) An office in the gingerbread Victorian style."
],
"related": [
{
"_dis1": "3 97",
"word": "Gingerbread"
},
{
"_dis1": "3 97",
"word": "a British charity with various offices"
}
],
"synonyms": [
{
"_dis1": "3 97",
"word": "outhouse"
}
],
"topics": [
"architecture"
]
}
],
"wikipedia": [
"gingerbread office"
],
"word": "gingerbread office"
}
{
"categories": [
"English compound terms",
"English countable nouns",
"English entries with incorrect language header",
"English lemmas",
"English multiword terms",
"English nouns",
"Pages with 1 entry",
"Pages with entries",
"en:Buildings",
"en:Rooms",
"en:Toilet (room)"
],
"etymology_text": "From gingerbread (“in its figurative use as ersatz or unpleasant”) + office (“place to fulfill one's obligations; place of business”)",
"forms": [
{
"form": "gingerbread offices",
"tags": [
"plural"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {},
"expansion": "gingerbread office (plural gingerbread offices)",
"name": "en-noun"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "noun",
"related": [
{
"word": "Gingerbread"
},
{
"word": "a British charity with various offices"
}
],
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
"English euphemisms",
"English slang",
"English terms with obsolete senses",
"English terms with quotations",
"Quotation templates to be cleaned"
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "a. 1643, William Cartwright, Lady-Errant, Act V, Scene i:",
"text": "There's no great need of Souldiers;\nTheir Camp's No larger than a Ginger-bread Office.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2001, Chris Mounsey, Christopher Smart: Clown of God, page 192:",
"text": "\"Gingerbread office\" was an eighteenth-century slang term for public toilets, which were, Norton argues, meeting places for homosexuals to engage in sexual encounters. \"Gingerbread-kake\" and \"ginger-bred queen\" suggest what may happen in the \"office\" and name those involved.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2013, Noel Chevalier, “Breaking the Circle of the Sciences”, in Reading Christopher Smart in the Twenty-First Century, page 139:",
"text": "Mounsey also suggests that one poem in the volume further links Smart with homosexuality in its use of the term \"gingerbread-office\" as slang for a public toilet used for gay sexual encounters... If Mounsey is correct, then the later History of Giles Gingerbread may contain more than meets the eye, especially since its final poem is signed with the known Smart pseudonym, Tom Tagg.",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"An outhouse: an outbuilding used as a lavatory."
],
"links": [
[
"outhouse",
"outhouse"
],
[
"outbuilding",
"outbuilding"
],
[
"use",
"use"
],
[
"lavatory",
"lavatory"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(obsolete, euphemistic slang) An outhouse: an outbuilding used as a lavatory."
],
"tags": [
"euphemistic",
"obsolete",
"slang"
]
},
{
"categories": [
"English terms with quotations",
"Quotation templates to be cleaned",
"en:Architecture"
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1968, The Discovery of Drama, page 378:",
"text": "Morley: A year and a half ago I stumbled into your gingerbread office, a lost, frightened soul in terrified flight across the great yawning terror of doubt—a human being, in short!—and you chanted some hagridden formulas and danged some fylfots...",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "1975, Dental Survey, volume 51, page 92:",
"text": "The conversion of an old bungalow into a \"gingerbread office\" has brought to life a 13-year dream of mine.",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"An office in the gingerbread Victorian style."
],
"links": [
[
"architecture",
"architecture"
],
[
"office",
"office"
],
[
"gingerbread",
"gingerbread"
],
[
"Victorian",
"Victorian"
],
[
"style",
"style"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(architecture) An office in the gingerbread Victorian style."
],
"topics": [
"architecture"
]
}
],
"synonyms": [
{
"word": "outhouse"
}
],
"wikipedia": [
"gingerbread office"
],
"word": "gingerbread office"
}
Download raw JSONL data for gingerbread office meaning in English (3.4kB)
This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-12-21 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-12-04 using wiktextract (d8cb2f3 and 4e554ae). 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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