"go over like a lead balloon" meaning in English

See go over like a lead balloon in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Verb

Forms: goes over like a lead balloon [present, singular, third-person], going over like a lead balloon [participle, present], went over like a lead balloon [past], gone over like a lead balloon [participle, past]
Etymology: Presumably from go over (“to be received”), used as if literally (“to travel above”): a lead balloon would not travel well through the air. Etymology templates: {{m|en|go over||to be received}} go over (“to be received”) Head templates: {{en-verb|go<goes,,went,gone> over like a lead balloon}} go over like a lead balloon (third-person singular simple present goes over like a lead balloon, present participle going over like a lead balloon, simple past went over like a lead balloon, past participle gone over like a lead balloon)
  1. (simile) To fail to gain acceptance: to be received poorly. Synonyms: go down like a cup of cold sick, go down like a lead balloon Related terms: fly with leaden wings, sink like a stone
    Sense id: en-go_over_like_a_lead_balloon-en-verb-e1XZwSof Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, English similes

Inflected forms

Alternative forms

Download JSON data for go over like a lead balloon meaning in English (1.8kB)

{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "go over",
        "3": "",
        "4": "to be received"
      },
      "expansion": "go over (“to be received”)",
      "name": "m"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "Presumably from go over (“to be received”), used as if literally (“to travel above”): a lead balloon would not travel well through the air.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "goes over like a lead balloon",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "going over like a lead balloon",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "went over like a lead balloon",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "gone over like a lead balloon",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "go<goes,,went,gone> over like a lead balloon"
      },
      "expansion": "go over like a lead balloon (third-person singular simple present goes over like a lead balloon, present participle going over like a lead balloon, simple past went over like a lead balloon, past participle gone over like a lead balloon)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
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        {
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          "name": "English similes",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
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      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To fail to gain acceptance: to be received poorly."
      ],
      "id": "en-go_over_like_a_lead_balloon-en-verb-e1XZwSof",
      "links": [
        [
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        ]
      ],
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      "raw_glosses": [
        "(simile) To fail to gain acceptance: to be received poorly."
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "word": "fly with leaden wings"
        },
        {
          "word": "sink like a stone"
        }
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "go down like a cup of cold sick"
        },
        {
          "word": "go down like a lead balloon"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "go over like a lead balloon"
}
{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "go over",
        "3": "",
        "4": "to be received"
      },
      "expansion": "go over (“to be received”)",
      "name": "m"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "Presumably from go over (“to be received”), used as if literally (“to travel above”): a lead balloon would not travel well through the air.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "goes over like a lead balloon",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "going over like a lead balloon",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "went over like a lead balloon",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "gone over like a lead balloon",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
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      "args": {
        "1": "go<goes,,went,gone> over like a lead balloon"
      },
      "expansion": "go over like a lead balloon (third-person singular simple present goes over like a lead balloon, present participle going over like a lead balloon, simple past went over like a lead balloon, past participle gone over like a lead balloon)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "fly with leaden wings"
    },
    {
      "word": "sink like a stone"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English similes",
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      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To fail to gain acceptance: to be received poorly."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "acceptance",
          "acceptance"
        ],
        [
          "receive",
          "receive"
        ]
      ],
      "qualifier": "simile",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(simile) To fail to gain acceptance: to be received poorly."
      ]
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "go down like a cup of cold sick"
    },
    {
      "word": "go down like a lead balloon"
    }
  ],
  "word": "go over like a lead balloon"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-05 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-05-02 using wiktextract (f4fd8c9 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.