"in the pocket" meaning in English

See in the pocket in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Prepositional phrase

Head templates: {{head|en|prepositional phrase|head=}} in the pocket, {{en-PP}} in the pocket
  1. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see in, pocket.
    Sense id: en-in_the_pocket-en-prep_phrase-QFUf-2hF
  2. (music slang) Alternative form of in the zone, playing perfectly in time, perfectly in sync with others, or with a perfect groove. Tags: alt-of, alternative, slang Alternative form of: in the zone, playing perfectly in time, perfectly in sync with others, or with a perfect groove Categories (topical): Music
    Sense id: en-in_the_pocket-en-prep_phrase-uQxCGv05 Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 4 88 9 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 5 89 5 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 5 92 3 Topics: entertainment, lifestyle, music
  3. (colloquial, derogatory) Alternative form of in one's pocket. Tags: alt-of, alternative, colloquial, derogatory Alternative form of: in one's pocket
    Sense id: en-in_the_pocket-en-prep_phrase--aZZh~T4
{
  "head_templates": [
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      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "prepositional phrase",
        "head": ""
      },
      "expansion": "in the pocket",
      "name": "head"
    },
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "in the pocket",
      "name": "en-PP"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "prep_phrase",
  "senses": [
    {
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2001 Sept. 3, Brian Billick, quoted in \"Run or Gun?\", ESPN the Magazine, Vol. IV, No. 18",
          "text": "The allure of all this athleticism at quarterback is very strong right now, but when push comes to shove, most of the people I talk to would go with the guy in the pocket. The scrambling quarterback is like a beautiful woman -- awfully enticing, but in the end she'll break your heart."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see in, pocket."
      ],
      "id": "en-in_the_pocket-en-prep_phrase-QFUf-2hF",
      "links": [
        [
          "in",
          "in#English"
        ],
        [
          "pocket",
          "pocket#English"
        ]
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    },
    {
      "alt_of": [
        {
          "word": "in the zone"
        },
        {
          "word": "playing perfectly in time"
        },
        {
          "word": "perfectly in sync with others"
        },
        {
          "word": "or with a perfect groove"
        }
      ],
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Music",
          "orig": "en:Music",
          "parents": [
            "Art",
            "Sound",
            "Culture",
            "Energy",
            "Society",
            "Nature",
            "All topics",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "4 88 9",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
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          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "5 89 5",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "5 92 3",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2010, Will Friedwald, “Dakota Staton”, in A Biographical Guide to the Great Jazz and Pop Singers, page 448:",
          "text": "Throughout The Late, Late Show, Staton is right on the money (or right in the pocket, as musicians say)...",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2013, Loren Weisman, The Artist's Guide to Success in the Music Business, page 229:",
          "text": "I've never thought that the groove was the beat; I always saw it as the space between the beats. I believe that's where the phrase \"in the pocket\" originated.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2016, Bobby Owsinski, The Music Producer's Handbook, 2nd edition:",
          "text": "Musicians who play funk and Latin tunes refer to the groove as the sense of being \"in the pocket,\" while jazz players refer to the groove as the sense that a song is really \"cooking\" or \"swinging\"... Historically speaking, the term pocket originated in the middle of the previous century, when a strong backbeat (the snare drum striking on beats 2 and 4) became predominant in popular music... Many people feel that the question is not so much what the pocket is as much as how you know when you're in it; I guarantee that you'll know it when you feel it, because the music feels as though it's playing itself. It feels as though everything has merged together, with all the rhythmic parts being played by one instrument.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2019, Joseph Church, Rock in the Musical Theatre, page 173:",
          "text": "Use his approach for both songs to keep your rhythms in the pocket. You needn't be rigid; some stretching of the phrase is absolutely allowable for the sake of meaning. For the most part, however, ride the driving pulsations of the accompaniment with an equally grooving vocal approach.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2020, Paul Thberge, “Click/Beat/Body: Thoughts on the Materiality of Time and Tempo”, in The Auditory Culture Reader, page 344:",
          "text": "...Iyer argues that the backbeat in much postwar African-American popular music is seldom precisely on the beat: it is slightly delayed, lending it a more 'laid back' feel. Again, as with swing, playing the backbeat 'in the pocket'—just slightly behind the beat—does not disrupt the regularity of the beat so much as demand that we hear (and feel) the rhythm in a more subtle and integrated way...",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2021, Michael Zager, Music Production, page 97:",
          "text": "Most musicians who play classical music usually play too \"stiff\" (rigidly) to perform on popular music recordings. All forms of popular music require musicians to feel the groove and to play in the pocket (playing within the feel of the rhythm section).",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "text": "Hell yes, use that take. She was in the pocket.",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Alternative form of in the zone, playing perfectly in time, perfectly in sync with others, or with a perfect groove."
      ],
      "id": "en-in_the_pocket-en-prep_phrase-uQxCGv05",
      "links": [
        [
          "music",
          "music"
        ],
        [
          "in the zone",
          "in the zone#English"
        ],
        [
          "play",
          "play"
        ],
        [
          "perfectly",
          "perfectly"
        ],
        [
          "in time",
          "in time"
        ],
        [
          "in sync",
          "in sync"
        ],
        [
          "other",
          "other"
        ],
        [
          "perfect",
          "perfect"
        ],
        [
          "groove",
          "groove"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(music slang) Alternative form of in the zone, playing perfectly in time, perfectly in sync with others, or with a perfect groove."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "alt-of",
        "alternative",
        "slang"
      ],
      "topics": [
        "entertainment",
        "lifestyle",
        "music"
      ]
    },
    {
      "alt_of": [
        {
          "word": "in one's pocket"
        }
      ],
      "categories": [],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "No, you can't count on him for the environmental bill. He's in the pocket of Big Oil.",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Alternative form of in one's pocket."
      ],
      "id": "en-in_the_pocket-en-prep_phrase--aZZh~T4",
      "links": [
        [
          "derogatory",
          "derogatory"
        ],
        [
          "in one's pocket",
          "in one's pocket#English"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(colloquial, derogatory) Alternative form of in one's pocket."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "alt-of",
        "alternative",
        "colloquial",
        "derogatory"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "in the pocket"
}
{
  "categories": [
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English prepositional phrases",
    "Pages with 1 entry",
    "Pages with entries"
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "prepositional phrase",
        "head": ""
      },
      "expansion": "in the pocket",
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      "args": {},
      "expansion": "in the pocket",
      "name": "en-PP"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "prep_phrase",
  "senses": [
    {
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2001 Sept. 3, Brian Billick, quoted in \"Run or Gun?\", ESPN the Magazine, Vol. IV, No. 18",
          "text": "The allure of all this athleticism at quarterback is very strong right now, but when push comes to shove, most of the people I talk to would go with the guy in the pocket. The scrambling quarterback is like a beautiful woman -- awfully enticing, but in the end she'll break your heart."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see in, pocket."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "in",
          "in#English"
        ],
        [
          "pocket",
          "pocket#English"
        ]
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    },
    {
      "alt_of": [
        {
          "word": "in the zone"
        },
        {
          "word": "playing perfectly in time"
        },
        {
          "word": "perfectly in sync with others"
        },
        {
          "word": "or with a perfect groove"
        }
      ],
      "categories": [
        "English slang",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English terms with usage examples",
        "Quotation templates to be cleaned",
        "en:Music"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2010, Will Friedwald, “Dakota Staton”, in A Biographical Guide to the Great Jazz and Pop Singers, page 448:",
          "text": "Throughout The Late, Late Show, Staton is right on the money (or right in the pocket, as musicians say)...",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2013, Loren Weisman, The Artist's Guide to Success in the Music Business, page 229:",
          "text": "I've never thought that the groove was the beat; I always saw it as the space between the beats. I believe that's where the phrase \"in the pocket\" originated.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2016, Bobby Owsinski, The Music Producer's Handbook, 2nd edition:",
          "text": "Musicians who play funk and Latin tunes refer to the groove as the sense of being \"in the pocket,\" while jazz players refer to the groove as the sense that a song is really \"cooking\" or \"swinging\"... Historically speaking, the term pocket originated in the middle of the previous century, when a strong backbeat (the snare drum striking on beats 2 and 4) became predominant in popular music... Many people feel that the question is not so much what the pocket is as much as how you know when you're in it; I guarantee that you'll know it when you feel it, because the music feels as though it's playing itself. It feels as though everything has merged together, with all the rhythmic parts being played by one instrument.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2019, Joseph Church, Rock in the Musical Theatre, page 173:",
          "text": "Use his approach for both songs to keep your rhythms in the pocket. You needn't be rigid; some stretching of the phrase is absolutely allowable for the sake of meaning. For the most part, however, ride the driving pulsations of the accompaniment with an equally grooving vocal approach.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2020, Paul Thberge, “Click/Beat/Body: Thoughts on the Materiality of Time and Tempo”, in The Auditory Culture Reader, page 344:",
          "text": "...Iyer argues that the backbeat in much postwar African-American popular music is seldom precisely on the beat: it is slightly delayed, lending it a more 'laid back' feel. Again, as with swing, playing the backbeat 'in the pocket'—just slightly behind the beat—does not disrupt the regularity of the beat so much as demand that we hear (and feel) the rhythm in a more subtle and integrated way...",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2021, Michael Zager, Music Production, page 97:",
          "text": "Most musicians who play classical music usually play too \"stiff\" (rigidly) to perform on popular music recordings. All forms of popular music require musicians to feel the groove and to play in the pocket (playing within the feel of the rhythm section).",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "text": "Hell yes, use that take. She was in the pocket.",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Alternative form of in the zone, playing perfectly in time, perfectly in sync with others, or with a perfect groove."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "music",
          "music"
        ],
        [
          "in the zone",
          "in the zone#English"
        ],
        [
          "play",
          "play"
        ],
        [
          "perfectly",
          "perfectly"
        ],
        [
          "in time",
          "in time"
        ],
        [
          "in sync",
          "in sync"
        ],
        [
          "other",
          "other"
        ],
        [
          "perfect",
          "perfect"
        ],
        [
          "groove",
          "groove"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(music slang) Alternative form of in the zone, playing perfectly in time, perfectly in sync with others, or with a perfect groove."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "alt-of",
        "alternative",
        "slang"
      ],
      "topics": [
        "entertainment",
        "lifestyle",
        "music"
      ]
    },
    {
      "alt_of": [
        {
          "word": "in one's pocket"
        }
      ],
      "categories": [
        "English colloquialisms",
        "English derogatory terms",
        "English terms with usage examples"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "No, you can't count on him for the environmental bill. He's in the pocket of Big Oil.",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Alternative form of in one's pocket."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "derogatory",
          "derogatory"
        ],
        [
          "in one's pocket",
          "in one's pocket#English"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(colloquial, derogatory) Alternative form of in one's pocket."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "alt-of",
        "alternative",
        "colloquial",
        "derogatory"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "in the pocket"
}

Download raw JSONL data for in the pocket meaning in English (5.2kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-11-06 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-10-02 using wiktextract (fbeafe8 and 7f03c9b). 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.