"greaseball" meaning in English

See greaseball in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Audio: En-au-greaseball.ogg Forms: greaseballs [plural]
Etymology: From grease + ball; possibly derived from the fact that Italians and Italian-Americans are stereotyped as having greasy or greased-up hair. Etymology templates: {{compound|en|grease|ball}} grease + ball Head templates: {{en-noun}} greaseball (plural greaseballs)
  1. (US, slang, derogatory, ethnic slur) A person of Italian descent especially, but also used pejoratively to refer to people of Spanish, Portuguese, Greek, other Mediterranean, or Latin American descent. Tags: US, derogatory, ethnic, slang, slur Hyponyms: dago, Eyetie, goombah, guido, guinea, wog, wop
    Sense id: en-greaseball-en-noun-Mft-lJbY Categories (other): American English, English ethnic slurs, English entries with incorrect language header, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 49 2 5 45 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 56 3 7 35 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 54 1 3 42
  2. (slang) A mechanic. Tags: slang
    Sense id: en-greaseball-en-noun-obvyqwZm
  3. (slang) A biker, a tough. Tags: slang
    Sense id: en-greaseball-en-noun-THUbtd1b
  4. (slang) A rocker or metalhead, especially one who listens to 1950s rock and roll or 1980s thrash metal. Tags: slang
    Sense id: en-greaseball-en-noun-mIMK1ASV Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 49 2 5 45

Inflected forms

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  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "grease",
        "3": "ball"
      },
      "expansion": "grease + ball",
      "name": "compound"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From grease + ball; possibly derived from the fact that Italians and Italian-Americans are stereotyped as having greasy or greased-up hair.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "greaseballs",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "greaseball (plural greaseballs)",
      "name": "en-noun"
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  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
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        {
          "kind": "other",
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        },
        {
          "_dis": "49 2 5 45",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
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          "source": "w+disamb"
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          "_dis": "56 3 7 35",
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          "source": "w+disamb"
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          "_dis": "54 1 3 42",
          "kind": "other",
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          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "(Italian)"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1982, Stephen King, Survivor Type:",
          "text": "Do you think I wanted to walk across that stage and get my diploma and look down and see that fat greaseball sitting there? […] I got into a fraternity, too. It wasn’t one of the good ones, not with a name like Pinzetti, but a fraternity all the same.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A person of Italian descent especially, but also used pejoratively to refer to people of Spanish, Portuguese, Greek, other Mediterranean, or Latin American descent."
      ],
      "hyponyms": [
        {
          "word": "dago"
        },
        {
          "word": "Eyetie"
        },
        {
          "word": "goombah"
        },
        {
          "word": "guido"
        },
        {
          "word": "guinea"
        },
        {
          "word": "wog"
        },
        {
          "word": "wop"
        }
      ],
      "id": "en-greaseball-en-noun-Mft-lJbY",
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        [
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        ],
        [
          "Italian",
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        ],
        [
          "Spanish",
          "Spanish"
        ],
        [
          "Portuguese",
          "Portuguese"
        ],
        [
          "Greek",
          "Greek"
        ],
        [
          "Mediterranean",
          "Mediterranean"
        ],
        [
          "Latin American",
          "Latin American"
        ]
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      "raw_glosses": [
        "(US, slang, derogatory, ethnic slur) A person of Italian descent especially, but also used pejoratively to refer to people of Spanish, Portuguese, Greek, other Mediterranean, or Latin American descent."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "US",
        "derogatory",
        "ethnic",
        "slang",
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    {
      "categories": [],
      "glosses": [
        "A mechanic."
      ],
      "id": "en-greaseball-en-noun-obvyqwZm",
      "links": [
        [
          "mechanic",
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        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(slang) A mechanic."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "slang"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [],
      "glosses": [
        "A biker, a tough."
      ],
      "id": "en-greaseball-en-noun-THUbtd1b",
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          "biker",
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        ],
        [
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      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(slang) A biker, a tough."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "slang"
      ]
    },
    {
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          "_dis": "49 2 5 45",
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          "source": "w+disamb"
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      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A rocker or metalhead, especially one who listens to 1950s rock and roll or 1980s thrash metal."
      ],
      "id": "en-greaseball-en-noun-mIMK1ASV",
      "links": [
        [
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          "metalhead",
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        ],
        [
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        ],
        [
          "thrash metal",
          "thrash metal"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(slang) A rocker or metalhead, especially one who listens to 1950s rock and roll or 1980s thrash metal."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "slang"
      ]
    }
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  "sounds": [
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{
  "categories": [
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    "English countable nouns",
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English nouns",
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      "tags": [
        "plural"
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    }
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      "expansion": "greaseball (plural greaseballs)",
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          "text": "(Italian)"
        },
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          "ref": "1982, Stephen King, Survivor Type:",
          "text": "Do you think I wanted to walk across that stage and get my diploma and look down and see that fat greaseball sitting there? […] I got into a fraternity, too. It wasn’t one of the good ones, not with a name like Pinzetti, but a fraternity all the same.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
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        "A person of Italian descent especially, but also used pejoratively to refer to people of Spanish, Portuguese, Greek, other Mediterranean, or Latin American descent."
      ],
      "hyponyms": [
        {
          "word": "dago"
        },
        {
          "word": "Eyetie"
        },
        {
          "word": "goombah"
        },
        {
          "word": "guido"
        },
        {
          "word": "guinea"
        },
        {
          "word": "wog"
        },
        {
          "word": "wop"
        }
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        "US",
        "derogatory",
        "ethnic",
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        "slur"
      ]
    },
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      "glosses": [
        "A mechanic."
      ],
      "links": [
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        ]
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      "raw_glosses": [
        "(slang) A mechanic."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "slang"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English slang"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A biker, a tough."
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        ],
        [
          "tough",
          "tough"
        ]
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        "(slang) A biker, a tough."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "slang"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English slang"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A rocker or metalhead, especially one who listens to 1950s rock and roll or 1980s thrash metal."
      ],
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        [
          "rocker",
          "rocker"
        ],
        [
          "metalhead",
          "metalhead"
        ],
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        ],
        [
          "thrash metal",
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        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(slang) A rocker or metalhead, especially one who listens to 1950s rock and roll or 1980s thrash metal."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "slang"
      ]
    }
  ],
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      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a7/En-au-greaseball.ogg"
    }
  ],
  "word": "greaseball"
}

Download raw JSONL data for greaseball meaning in English (3.0kB)


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.

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.