"greasy spoon" meaning in English

See greasy spoon in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Audio: en-au-greasy spoon.ogg [Australia] Forms: greasy spoons [plural]
Etymology: American English, 1920s. Head templates: {{en-noun}} greasy spoon (plural greasy spoons)
  1. (idiomatic, informal) An inexpensive diner or other informal restaurant, especially one specializing in frying or grilling. Tags: idiomatic, informal Categories (topical): Restaurants Related terms: hash slinger Translations (inexpensive diner or restaurant): kis koszos (Hungarian), gānea [feminine] (Latin), gāneum [neuter] (Latin), podrão [masculine] (Portuguese)

Inflected forms

Download JSON data for greasy spoon meaning in English (3.3kB)

{
  "etymology_text": "American English, 1920s.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "greasy spoons",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "greasy spoon (plural greasy spoons)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with topic categories using raw markup",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with topic categories using raw markup",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
          "parents": [
            "Terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Restaurants",
          "orig": "en:Restaurants",
          "parents": [
            "Businesses",
            "Food and drink",
            "Business",
            "All topics",
            "Economics",
            "Society",
            "Fundamental",
            "Social sciences",
            "Sciences"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "We found a good little greasy spoon down a side street.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1995, Sam DeSanto, The American Standard, East African Publishers, page 55",
          "text": "From the highway, Phil's looked like any other greasy spoon inviting the weary traveler off the road for a little indigestion and a cup of coffee — the same red booths patched with black electrical tape and faded formica counters lined with chrome-sided stools, a glass pie pin near the cash register, and coffee served in thick white mugs.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2008 January–February, “70 Ways to Improve Every Day of the Week”, in Men's Health, volume 23, number 1, →ISSN, page 135",
          "text": "Reward yourself for a week of healthful eating with breakfast at a greasy spoon. Nutritionists say an occasional cheat meal can make it easier to stick with a healthy diet.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "An inexpensive diner or other informal restaurant, especially one specializing in frying or grilling."
      ],
      "id": "en-greasy_spoon-en-noun-uGvJcI2a",
      "links": [
        [
          "inexpensive",
          "inexpensive"
        ],
        [
          "diner",
          "diner"
        ],
        [
          "informal",
          "informal"
        ],
        [
          "restaurant",
          "restaurant"
        ],
        [
          "fry",
          "fry"
        ],
        [
          "grill",
          "grill"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic, informal) An inexpensive diner or other informal restaurant, especially one specializing in frying or grilling."
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "word": "hash slinger"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic",
        "informal"
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "code": "hu",
          "lang": "Hungarian",
          "sense": "inexpensive diner or restaurant",
          "word": "kis koszos"
        },
        {
          "code": "la",
          "lang": "Latin",
          "sense": "inexpensive diner or restaurant",
          "tags": [
            "feminine"
          ],
          "word": "gānea"
        },
        {
          "code": "la",
          "lang": "Latin",
          "sense": "inexpensive diner or restaurant",
          "tags": [
            "neuter"
          ],
          "word": "gāneum"
        },
        {
          "code": "pt",
          "lang": "Portuguese",
          "sense": "inexpensive diner or restaurant",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "podrão"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "en-au-greasy spoon.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/a/a0/En-au-greasy_spoon.ogg/En-au-greasy_spoon.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a0/En-au-greasy_spoon.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "word": "greasy spoon"
}
{
  "etymology_text": "American English, 1920s.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "greasy spoons",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "greasy spoon (plural greasy spoons)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "hash slinger"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English countable nouns",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English entries with topic categories using raw markup",
        "English idioms",
        "English informal terms",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English nouns",
        "English terms with audio links",
        "English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English terms with usage examples",
        "en:Restaurants"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "We found a good little greasy spoon down a side street.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1995, Sam DeSanto, The American Standard, East African Publishers, page 55",
          "text": "From the highway, Phil's looked like any other greasy spoon inviting the weary traveler off the road for a little indigestion and a cup of coffee — the same red booths patched with black electrical tape and faded formica counters lined with chrome-sided stools, a glass pie pin near the cash register, and coffee served in thick white mugs.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2008 January–February, “70 Ways to Improve Every Day of the Week”, in Men's Health, volume 23, number 1, →ISSN, page 135",
          "text": "Reward yourself for a week of healthful eating with breakfast at a greasy spoon. Nutritionists say an occasional cheat meal can make it easier to stick with a healthy diet.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "An inexpensive diner or other informal restaurant, especially one specializing in frying or grilling."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "inexpensive",
          "inexpensive"
        ],
        [
          "diner",
          "diner"
        ],
        [
          "informal",
          "informal"
        ],
        [
          "restaurant",
          "restaurant"
        ],
        [
          "fry",
          "fry"
        ],
        [
          "grill",
          "grill"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic, informal) An inexpensive diner or other informal restaurant, especially one specializing in frying or grilling."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic",
        "informal"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "en-au-greasy spoon.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/a/a0/En-au-greasy_spoon.ogg/En-au-greasy_spoon.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a0/En-au-greasy_spoon.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "hu",
      "lang": "Hungarian",
      "sense": "inexpensive diner or restaurant",
      "word": "kis koszos"
    },
    {
      "code": "la",
      "lang": "Latin",
      "sense": "inexpensive diner or restaurant",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "gānea"
    },
    {
      "code": "la",
      "lang": "Latin",
      "sense": "inexpensive diner or restaurant",
      "tags": [
        "neuter"
      ],
      "word": "gāneum"
    },
    {
      "code": "pt",
      "lang": "Portuguese",
      "sense": "inexpensive diner or restaurant",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "podrão"
    }
  ],
  "word": "greasy spoon"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-01 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-04-21 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.