See king's ransom in All languages combined, or Wiktionary
Download JSON data for king's ransom meaning in English (4.0kB)
{
"etymology_text": "From the exceptionally high ransom demanded for the return of a kidnapped or captured king.",
"forms": [
{
"form": "king's ransoms",
"tags": [
"plural"
]
},
{
"form": "kings' ransoms",
"tags": [
"plural"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "s",
"2": "kings' ransoms"
},
"expansion": "king's ransom (plural king's ransoms or kings' ransoms)",
"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": "Money",
"orig": "en:Money",
"parents": [
"Business",
"Economics",
"Society",
"Social sciences",
"All topics",
"Sciences",
"Fundamental"
],
"source": "w"
}
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1825, Sir Walter Scott, chapter 12, in The Talisman",
"text": "\"But to yonder pavilion . . . the moon is glimmering on the gilded ball which crowns its roof, and which is worth a king's ransom.\"",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "1967 March 10, Archeology: An Ill-Starred Treasure Comes into Its Own (pictorial), LIFE, page 101",
"text": "These gold, silver and pewter pieces are part of a king’s ransom of Spanish treasure salvaged from the sea off Florida where they had lain for 250 years."
},
{
"ref": "1986 March 24, Bernice Kanner, “The Real James Bond: Jim Lebenthal’s Tax-Bill Crusade”, in New York, page 46",
"text": "[…]This commercial message is sponsored by Lebenthal in the heartfelt belief that we’re not the only ones who are going to miss the bonds when they’re gone and it costs a king’s ransom to turn on the lights, boil water, or haul the garbage.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2005, Michael R. Matthews, Colin F. Gauld, Arthur Stinner, “The Pendulum: Its Place in Science, Culture and Pedagogy”, in Michael R. Matthews, Colin F. Gauld, Arthur Stinner, editors, The Pendulum: Scientific, Historical, Philosophical and Educational Perspectives, page 7",
"text": "Solving longitude was one of the major preoccupations of European nations from the fifteenth to the eighteenth centuries. King’s ransoms were offered for its solution.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2010, Jane Feather, Rushed to the Altar, Pocket Books, published 2010, page 386",
"text": "Except that Clarissa Astley would not have been decked out in a king's ransom of diamonds.",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"A very large sum of money."
],
"id": "en-king's_ransom-en-noun-W9TSrQHc",
"links": [
[
"money",
"money"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(idiomatic) A very large sum of money."
],
"synonyms": [
{
"word": "fortune"
}
],
"tags": [
"idiomatic"
],
"translations": [
{
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"sense": "very large sum of money",
"word": "jättisumma"
},
{
"code": "hu",
"lang": "Hungarian",
"sense": "very large sum of money",
"word": "borsos ár"
},
{
"code": "hu",
"lang": "Hungarian",
"sense": "very large sum of money",
"word": "vagyon"
},
{
"code": "ru",
"lang": "Russian",
"roman": "bolʹšój kuš",
"sense": "very large sum of money",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "большо́й куш"
},
{
"code": "sv",
"lang": "Swedish",
"sense": "very large sum of money",
"tags": [
"common-gender"
],
"word": "förmögenhet"
},
{
"code": "sv",
"lang": "Swedish",
"sense": "very large sum of money",
"tags": [
"common-gender"
],
"word": "furstlig summa"
}
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"audio": "En-au-king's ransom.ogg",
"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/f/fe/En-au-king%27s_ransom.ogg/En-au-king%27s_ransom.ogg.mp3",
"ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fe/En-au-king%27s_ransom.ogg",
"tags": [
"Australia"
],
"text": "Audio (AU)"
}
],
"word": "king's ransom"
}
{
"etymology_text": "From the exceptionally high ransom demanded for the return of a kidnapped or captured king.",
"forms": [
{
"form": "king's ransoms",
"tags": [
"plural"
]
},
{
"form": "kings' ransoms",
"tags": [
"plural"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "s",
"2": "kings' ransoms"
},
"expansion": "king's ransom (plural king's ransoms or kings' ransoms)",
"name": "en-noun"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "noun",
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
"English countable nouns",
"English entries with incorrect language header",
"English entries with topic categories using raw markup",
"English idioms",
"English lemmas",
"English multiword terms",
"English nouns",
"English terms with audio links",
"English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
"English terms with quotations",
"Quotation templates to be cleaned",
"en:Money"
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1825, Sir Walter Scott, chapter 12, in The Talisman",
"text": "\"But to yonder pavilion . . . the moon is glimmering on the gilded ball which crowns its roof, and which is worth a king's ransom.\"",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "1967 March 10, Archeology: An Ill-Starred Treasure Comes into Its Own (pictorial), LIFE, page 101",
"text": "These gold, silver and pewter pieces are part of a king’s ransom of Spanish treasure salvaged from the sea off Florida where they had lain for 250 years."
},
{
"ref": "1986 March 24, Bernice Kanner, “The Real James Bond: Jim Lebenthal’s Tax-Bill Crusade”, in New York, page 46",
"text": "[…]This commercial message is sponsored by Lebenthal in the heartfelt belief that we’re not the only ones who are going to miss the bonds when they’re gone and it costs a king’s ransom to turn on the lights, boil water, or haul the garbage.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2005, Michael R. Matthews, Colin F. Gauld, Arthur Stinner, “The Pendulum: Its Place in Science, Culture and Pedagogy”, in Michael R. Matthews, Colin F. Gauld, Arthur Stinner, editors, The Pendulum: Scientific, Historical, Philosophical and Educational Perspectives, page 7",
"text": "Solving longitude was one of the major preoccupations of European nations from the fifteenth to the eighteenth centuries. King’s ransoms were offered for its solution.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2010, Jane Feather, Rushed to the Altar, Pocket Books, published 2010, page 386",
"text": "Except that Clarissa Astley would not have been decked out in a king's ransom of diamonds.",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"A very large sum of money."
],
"links": [
[
"money",
"money"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(idiomatic) A very large sum of money."
],
"tags": [
"idiomatic"
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"audio": "En-au-king's ransom.ogg",
"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/f/fe/En-au-king%27s_ransom.ogg/En-au-king%27s_ransom.ogg.mp3",
"ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fe/En-au-king%27s_ransom.ogg",
"tags": [
"Australia"
],
"text": "Audio (AU)"
}
],
"synonyms": [
{
"word": "fortune"
}
],
"translations": [
{
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"sense": "very large sum of money",
"word": "jättisumma"
},
{
"code": "hu",
"lang": "Hungarian",
"sense": "very large sum of money",
"word": "borsos ár"
},
{
"code": "hu",
"lang": "Hungarian",
"sense": "very large sum of money",
"word": "vagyon"
},
{
"code": "ru",
"lang": "Russian",
"roman": "bolʹšój kuš",
"sense": "very large sum of money",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "большо́й куш"
},
{
"code": "sv",
"lang": "Swedish",
"sense": "very large sum of money",
"tags": [
"common-gender"
],
"word": "förmögenhet"
},
{
"code": "sv",
"lang": "Swedish",
"sense": "very large sum of money",
"tags": [
"common-gender"
],
"word": "furstlig summa"
}
],
"word": "king's ransom"
}
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.
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