See lay a glove on in All languages combined, or Wiktionary
Download JSON data for lay a glove on meaning in English (6.6kB)
{
"etymology_text": "From the sport of boxing, referring to managing to hit someone with one's boxing glove.",
"forms": [
{
"form": "lays a glove on",
"tags": [
"present",
"singular",
"third-person"
]
},
{
"form": "laying a glove on",
"tags": [
"participle",
"present"
]
},
{
"form": "laid a glove on",
"tags": [
"participle",
"past"
]
},
{
"form": "laid a glove on",
"tags": [
"past"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "lay<,,laid> a glove on"
},
"expansion": "lay a glove on (third-person singular simple present lays a glove on, present participle laying a glove on, simple past and past participle laid a glove on)",
"name": "en-verb"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "verb",
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
{
"kind": "topical",
"langcode": "en",
"name": "Boxing",
"orig": "en:Boxing",
"parents": [
"Sports",
"Human activity",
"Human behaviour",
"Human",
"All topics",
"Fundamental"
],
"source": "w"
},
{
"_dis": "40 30 12 18",
"kind": "other",
"name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
"parents": [
"Entries with incorrect language header",
"Entry maintenance"
],
"source": "w+disamb"
}
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "2004, Morris Katz, The Journey, page 78",
"text": "“You were so good he couldn't lay a glove on you. You were terrific. He tired to hit you with his knockout punch but you skillfully avoided it - do you remember how his glove whistled harmlessly past your head?",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2012, Roland Perry, The Changi Brownlow",
"text": "In round three, Toxa moved in and out jabbing, scoring often with the bigger man unable to lay a glove on him.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2014, Davide Enia, On Earth as It Is in Heaven: A Novel, page 42",
"text": "Umbertino couldn't lay a glove on him. Big as he was, all it would have taken was a punch, a single roundhouse and he would have decked him. But the other guy was a grasshopper.",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"To hit with a boxing glove."
],
"id": "en-lay_a_glove_on-en-verb-XWXsvr9f",
"links": [
[
"boxing",
"boxing#Noun"
],
[
"hit",
"hit"
],
[
"boxing glove",
"boxing glove"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(boxing) To hit with a boxing glove."
],
"topics": [
"boxing",
"government",
"hobbies",
"lifestyle",
"martial-arts",
"military",
"politics",
"sports",
"war"
]
},
{
"categories": [
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "English negative polarity items",
"parents": [
"Negative polarity items",
"Terms by semantic function"
],
"source": "w"
}
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "2003, Bob Weir, Short Stories of Life and Death: Complexities of the Human Experience",
"text": "The blinking headlights in his rearview mirror indicated the driver's anger at almost being sideswiped. “Oh, get a grip on yourself,” Dave groused as he continued accelerating. “I didn't even lay a glove on ya,” he giggled.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2005, Jean Minton, In the Ruins, page 23",
"text": "“No, you needn't worry, Peres,” he'd gone on. “I wouldn't lay a glove on you. I've been meaning to tell you; you're really not my type at all. I just didn't want...Well, you know—your self-esteem and all that. You can understand, can't you?”",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2007, James D. Doss, Stone Butterfly: A Charlie Moon Mystery",
"text": "Moon was the soul of serene self-control. “He won't lay a glove on her, McTeague.” “How can you be so sure?” “Code of the West. No self-respecting frontier lawman will hit a woman.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2011, Pat G'Orge-Walker, No Ordinary Noel, page 196",
"text": "I told him not to lay a glove on you, but do like Beyoncé said, and lay a ring on you instead.",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"To physically touch, especially in a way that causes hurt."
],
"id": "en-lay_a_glove_on-en-verb-6~pj0-Z7",
"links": [
[
"physical",
"physical"
],
[
"touch",
"touch"
],
[
"hurt",
"hurt"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(chiefly in the negative) To physically touch, especially in a way that causes hurt."
],
"raw_tags": [
"in the negative"
]
},
{
"categories": [],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "2003, Sidney Blumenthal, The Clinton Wars",
"text": "It was more than an anticlimax: it was a triumph for the President. “They didn't lay a glove on him,” Robert Bennett, his lawyer, told me. “On a scale of one to ten, it was a fifteen.”",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2012, Ronald P. Formisano, Boston Against Busing: Race, Class, and Ethnicity in the 1960s and 1970s",
"text": "“The courts couldn't lay a glove on you, if that's what you did,\" said Silber.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2013, Tevi Troy, What Jefferson Read, Ike Watched, and Obama Tweeted, page 144",
"text": "Even Saturday Night Live, the scourge of President Ford, could hardly lay a glove on the “Teflon president.”",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2014, Jim Ore, Crime is Everywhere, page 148",
"text": "But if you say absolutely nothing they can't just keep you inside and do nothing with you. No feedback from you and they have nothing to lay a glove on you with and have to let you go sometime.",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"To harm (someone's) reputation, to make an accusation stick."
],
"id": "en-lay_a_glove_on-en-verb-vIxiUdna",
"links": [
[
"harm",
"harm"
],
[
"accusation",
"accusation"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(by extension) To harm (someone's) reputation, to make an accusation stick."
],
"tags": [
"broadly"
]
},
{
"categories": [],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1994, United States Congress House Committee on Appropriations. Subcommittee on Foreign Operations, Export Financing, and Related Programs, Foreign Operations, Export Financing, and Related",
"text": "And I was dubious because I thought the problem was so huge that no small amount of money that we would put in this bill would lay a glove on the problem.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2014, David Horowitz, Take No Prisoners: The Battle Plan for Defeating the Left",
"text": "His team did not think that their candidate was so likeable that Romney couldn't lay a glove on him. Quite the opposite.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2018 January 28, Dafydd Pritchard, “Cardiff City 1 - 1 Manchester City”, in BBC Sport",
"text": "Warnock described City as the best team in Europe in the build-up to this match and joked that his players had been preparing for the game - and City's inevitable dominance - by training without a ball.\nIt proved to be a prescient quip, as the home side had to toil for long periods, struggling to lay a glove on their stylish opponents.",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"To match, to provide with meaningful competition or be able to handle."
],
"id": "en-lay_a_glove_on-en-verb-N9u301U-",
"links": [
[
"match",
"match"
],
[
"meaningful",
"meaningful"
],
[
"competition",
"competition"
],
[
"handle",
"handle"
]
]
}
],
"word": "lay a glove on"
}
{
"categories": [
"English entries with incorrect language header",
"English lemmas",
"English multiword terms",
"English verbs"
],
"etymology_text": "From the sport of boxing, referring to managing to hit someone with one's boxing glove.",
"forms": [
{
"form": "lays a glove on",
"tags": [
"present",
"singular",
"third-person"
]
},
{
"form": "laying a glove on",
"tags": [
"participle",
"present"
]
},
{
"form": "laid a glove on",
"tags": [
"participle",
"past"
]
},
{
"form": "laid a glove on",
"tags": [
"past"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "lay<,,laid> a glove on"
},
"expansion": "lay a glove on (third-person singular simple present lays a glove on, present participle laying a glove on, simple past and past participle laid a glove on)",
"name": "en-verb"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "verb",
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
"English terms with quotations",
"en:Boxing"
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "2004, Morris Katz, The Journey, page 78",
"text": "“You were so good he couldn't lay a glove on you. You were terrific. He tired to hit you with his knockout punch but you skillfully avoided it - do you remember how his glove whistled harmlessly past your head?",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2012, Roland Perry, The Changi Brownlow",
"text": "In round three, Toxa moved in and out jabbing, scoring often with the bigger man unable to lay a glove on him.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2014, Davide Enia, On Earth as It Is in Heaven: A Novel, page 42",
"text": "Umbertino couldn't lay a glove on him. Big as he was, all it would have taken was a punch, a single roundhouse and he would have decked him. But the other guy was a grasshopper.",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"To hit with a boxing glove."
],
"links": [
[
"boxing",
"boxing#Noun"
],
[
"hit",
"hit"
],
[
"boxing glove",
"boxing glove"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(boxing) To hit with a boxing glove."
],
"topics": [
"boxing",
"government",
"hobbies",
"lifestyle",
"martial-arts",
"military",
"politics",
"sports",
"war"
]
},
{
"categories": [
"English negative polarity items",
"English terms with quotations"
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "2003, Bob Weir, Short Stories of Life and Death: Complexities of the Human Experience",
"text": "The blinking headlights in his rearview mirror indicated the driver's anger at almost being sideswiped. “Oh, get a grip on yourself,” Dave groused as he continued accelerating. “I didn't even lay a glove on ya,” he giggled.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2005, Jean Minton, In the Ruins, page 23",
"text": "“No, you needn't worry, Peres,” he'd gone on. “I wouldn't lay a glove on you. I've been meaning to tell you; you're really not my type at all. I just didn't want...Well, you know—your self-esteem and all that. You can understand, can't you?”",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2007, James D. Doss, Stone Butterfly: A Charlie Moon Mystery",
"text": "Moon was the soul of serene self-control. “He won't lay a glove on her, McTeague.” “How can you be so sure?” “Code of the West. No self-respecting frontier lawman will hit a woman.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2011, Pat G'Orge-Walker, No Ordinary Noel, page 196",
"text": "I told him not to lay a glove on you, but do like Beyoncé said, and lay a ring on you instead.",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"To physically touch, especially in a way that causes hurt."
],
"links": [
[
"physical",
"physical"
],
[
"touch",
"touch"
],
[
"hurt",
"hurt"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(chiefly in the negative) To physically touch, especially in a way that causes hurt."
],
"raw_tags": [
"in the negative"
]
},
{
"categories": [
"English terms with quotations"
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "2003, Sidney Blumenthal, The Clinton Wars",
"text": "It was more than an anticlimax: it was a triumph for the President. “They didn't lay a glove on him,” Robert Bennett, his lawyer, told me. “On a scale of one to ten, it was a fifteen.”",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2012, Ronald P. Formisano, Boston Against Busing: Race, Class, and Ethnicity in the 1960s and 1970s",
"text": "“The courts couldn't lay a glove on you, if that's what you did,\" said Silber.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2013, Tevi Troy, What Jefferson Read, Ike Watched, and Obama Tweeted, page 144",
"text": "Even Saturday Night Live, the scourge of President Ford, could hardly lay a glove on the “Teflon president.”",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2014, Jim Ore, Crime is Everywhere, page 148",
"text": "But if you say absolutely nothing they can't just keep you inside and do nothing with you. No feedback from you and they have nothing to lay a glove on you with and have to let you go sometime.",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"To harm (someone's) reputation, to make an accusation stick."
],
"links": [
[
"harm",
"harm"
],
[
"accusation",
"accusation"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(by extension) To harm (someone's) reputation, to make an accusation stick."
],
"tags": [
"broadly"
]
},
{
"categories": [
"English terms with quotations"
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1994, United States Congress House Committee on Appropriations. Subcommittee on Foreign Operations, Export Financing, and Related Programs, Foreign Operations, Export Financing, and Related",
"text": "And I was dubious because I thought the problem was so huge that no small amount of money that we would put in this bill would lay a glove on the problem.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2014, David Horowitz, Take No Prisoners: The Battle Plan for Defeating the Left",
"text": "His team did not think that their candidate was so likeable that Romney couldn't lay a glove on him. Quite the opposite.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2018 January 28, Dafydd Pritchard, “Cardiff City 1 - 1 Manchester City”, in BBC Sport",
"text": "Warnock described City as the best team in Europe in the build-up to this match and joked that his players had been preparing for the game - and City's inevitable dominance - by training without a ball.\nIt proved to be a prescient quip, as the home side had to toil for long periods, struggling to lay a glove on their stylish opponents.",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"To match, to provide with meaningful competition or be able to handle."
],
"links": [
[
"match",
"match"
],
[
"meaningful",
"meaningful"
],
[
"competition",
"competition"
],
[
"handle",
"handle"
]
]
}
],
"word": "lay a glove on"
}
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.