"irons in the fire" meaning in English

See irons in the fire in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Audio: En-au-irons in the fire.ogg
Etymology: Describing a blacksmith working on several pieces at the same time. Head templates: {{en-noun|p|head=irons in the fire}} irons in the fire pl (plural only)
  1. Tasks in progress; involvement in ongoing projects. Tags: plural, plural-only Related terms: have one's fingers in many pies, spin plates, too many balls in the air, wear too many hats Translations (Translations): have mange jern i ilden (Danish), monta rautaa tulessa (Finnish), Eisen im Feuer [neuter, plural] (German), hafa mörg járn í eldinum (Icelandic), vera ekki við eina fjölina felldur (Icelandic), hafa margt í takinu (Icelandic), vasast í mörgu (Icelandic), ha mange jarn i elden (Norwegian Nynorsk), zadania [neuter, plural] (Polish)
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  "etymology_text": "Describing a blacksmith working on several pieces at the same time.",
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  "lang_code": "en",
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          "ref": "2024 January 24, Dyan Perry talks to Nick Brodrick, “The industry has given me so much”, in RAIL, number 1001, page 45:",
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      "related": [
        {
          "word": "have one's fingers in many pies"
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        {
          "word": "spin plates"
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        {
          "word": "too many balls in the air"
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        {
          "word": "wear too many hats"
        }
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      "translations": [
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          "code": "da",
          "lang": "Danish",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "word": "have mange jern i ilden"
        },
        {
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "word": "monta rautaa tulessa"
        },
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          "code": "de",
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          "sense": "Translations",
          "tags": [
            "neuter",
            "plural"
          ],
          "word": "Eisen im Feuer"
        },
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          "code": "is",
          "lang": "Icelandic",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "word": "hafa mörg járn í eldinum"
        },
        {
          "code": "is",
          "lang": "Icelandic",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "word": "vera ekki við eina fjölina felldur"
        },
        {
          "code": "is",
          "lang": "Icelandic",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "word": "hafa margt í takinu"
        },
        {
          "code": "is",
          "lang": "Icelandic",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "word": "vasast í mörgu"
        },
        {
          "code": "nn",
          "lang": "Norwegian Nynorsk",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "word": "ha mange jarn i elden"
        },
        {
          "code": "pl",
          "lang": "Polish",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "tags": [
            "neuter",
            "plural"
          ],
          "word": "zadania"
        }
      ]
    }
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  "word": "irons in the fire"
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  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
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    {
      "word": "have one's fingers in many pies"
    },
    {
      "word": "spin plates"
    },
    {
      "word": "too many balls in the air"
    },
    {
      "word": "wear too many hats"
    }
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        "Terms with Norwegian Nynorsk translations",
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          "ref": "2024 January 24, Dyan Perry talks to Nick Brodrick, “The industry has given me so much”, in RAIL, number 1001, page 45:",
          "text": "Although she plans to step back from the boards of NSAR and East West Rail, there are \"a couple of other irons in the fire\".",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
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        "Tasks in progress; involvement in ongoing projects."
      ],
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    {
      "code": "da",
      "lang": "Danish",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "word": "have mange jern i ilden"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "word": "monta rautaa tulessa"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "tags": [
        "neuter",
        "plural"
      ],
      "word": "Eisen im Feuer"
    },
    {
      "code": "is",
      "lang": "Icelandic",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "word": "hafa mörg járn í eldinum"
    },
    {
      "code": "is",
      "lang": "Icelandic",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "word": "vera ekki við eina fjölina felldur"
    },
    {
      "code": "is",
      "lang": "Icelandic",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "word": "hafa margt í takinu"
    },
    {
      "code": "is",
      "lang": "Icelandic",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "word": "vasast í mörgu"
    },
    {
      "code": "nn",
      "lang": "Norwegian Nynorsk",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "word": "ha mange jarn i elden"
    },
    {
      "code": "pl",
      "lang": "Polish",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "tags": [
        "neuter",
        "plural"
      ],
      "word": "zadania"
    }
  ],
  "word": "irons in the fire"
}

Download raw JSONL data for irons in the fire meaning in English (2.6kB)


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.