"gun for" meaning in English

See gun for in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Verb

Forms: guns for [present, singular, third-person], gunning for [participle, present], gunned for [participle, past], gunned for [past]
Head templates: {{en-verb|*}} gun for (third-person singular simple present guns for, present participle gunning for, simple past and past participle gunned for)
  1. (transitive) To strive for the downfall or diminution of another. Tags: transitive
    Sense id: en-gun_for-en-verb-CpYNa4no Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, English phrasal verbs formed with "for" Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 58 42 Disambiguation of English phrasal verbs formed with "for": 78 22
  2. (transitive) To pursue as a goal; to work hard to achieve. Tags: transitive
    Sense id: en-gun_for-en-verb-wkLieXi7

Download JSONL data for gun for meaning in English (2.5kB)

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "guns for",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "gunning for",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "gunned for",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "gunned for",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "*"
      },
      "expansion": "gun for (third-person singular simple present guns for, present participle gunning for, simple past and past participle gunned for)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "58 42",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "78 22",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English phrasal verbs formed with \"for\"",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "He has been gunning for her since the day he arrived, he wants her job."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To strive for the downfall or diminution of another."
      ],
      "id": "en-gun_for-en-verb-CpYNa4no",
      "links": [
        [
          "strive",
          "strive"
        ],
        [
          "downfall",
          "downfall"
        ],
        [
          "diminution",
          "diminution"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(transitive) To strive for the downfall or diminution of another."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "transitive"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2008, Leonard Sweet, The Gospel According to Starbucks: Living with a Grande Passion, page 11",
          "text": "In the early 1990s Starbucks was gunning for two thousand stores by 2000.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2008, John Uhrig, The Little Book with Big Impact For Day Spas - How To Create Instant Client Promotions and Sales Letters, page 105",
          "text": "The largest section at the top has five sections that you're going to grade individual components of your marketing on; on a scale of L-0 to L-5. “L” simply stands for level. And what we're gunning for is L-5 materials.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1997, Susan Abel Lieberman, The Real High School Handbook: How to Survive, Thrive, and Prepare for What's Next, page 49",
          "text": "And once you pick your direction, you'll need to decide the route: are you gunning for the best time; do you want the most scenic route; is it important to stop for lunch with Aunt Julia?",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To pursue as a goal; to work hard to achieve."
      ],
      "id": "en-gun_for-en-verb-wkLieXi7",
      "links": [
        [
          "pursue",
          "pursue"
        ],
        [
          "goal",
          "goal"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(transitive) To pursue as a goal; to work hard to achieve."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "transitive"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "gun for"
}
{
  "categories": [
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English phrasal verbs",
    "English phrasal verbs formed with \"for\"",
    "English verbs"
  ],
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "guns for",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "gunning for",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "gunned for",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "gunned for",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "*"
      },
      "expansion": "gun for (third-person singular simple present guns for, present participle gunning for, simple past and past participle gunned for)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English transitive verbs"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "He has been gunning for her since the day he arrived, he wants her job."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To strive for the downfall or diminution of another."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "strive",
          "strive"
        ],
        [
          "downfall",
          "downfall"
        ],
        [
          "diminution",
          "diminution"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(transitive) To strive for the downfall or diminution of another."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "transitive"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English transitive verbs"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2008, Leonard Sweet, The Gospel According to Starbucks: Living with a Grande Passion, page 11",
          "text": "In the early 1990s Starbucks was gunning for two thousand stores by 2000.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2008, John Uhrig, The Little Book with Big Impact For Day Spas - How To Create Instant Client Promotions and Sales Letters, page 105",
          "text": "The largest section at the top has five sections that you're going to grade individual components of your marketing on; on a scale of L-0 to L-5. “L” simply stands for level. And what we're gunning for is L-5 materials.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1997, Susan Abel Lieberman, The Real High School Handbook: How to Survive, Thrive, and Prepare for What's Next, page 49",
          "text": "And once you pick your direction, you'll need to decide the route: are you gunning for the best time; do you want the most scenic route; is it important to stop for lunch with Aunt Julia?",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To pursue as a goal; to work hard to achieve."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "pursue",
          "pursue"
        ],
        [
          "goal",
          "goal"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(transitive) To pursue as a goal; to work hard to achieve."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "transitive"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "gun for"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-06-29 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-06-20 using wiktextract (d4b8e84 and b863ecc). 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.