See lay of the land in All languages combined, or Wiktionary
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"ref": "1857, Henry David Thoreau, chapter 1, in Canoeing In The Wilderness:",
"text": "I did not know the exact route, but steered by the lay of the land, as I do in Boston.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "1910, Joseph A. Altsheler, chapter 9, in The Riflemen of the Ohio:",
"text": "He noted well the locality, the trees, and the lay of the land.",
"type": "quote"
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{
"ref": "1919, Upton Sinclair, chapter 10, in Jimmie Higgins […], Pasadena, Calif.: Upton Sinclair, →OCLC:",
"text": "Because he knew the lay of the land, he could run faster in the darkness than his pursuer.",
"type": "quote"
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"The physical characteristics of the terrain or surrounding natural environment."
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"(idiomatic) The physical characteristics of the terrain or surrounding natural environment."
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"translations": [
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"_dis1": "98 2",
"code": "cmn",
"lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
"roman": "dìxíng",
"sense": "physical characteristics of the terrain or surrounding natural environment",
"word": "地形"
},
{
"_dis1": "98 2",
"code": "cmn",
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"roman": "dìshì",
"sense": "physical characteristics of the terrain or surrounding natural environment",
"word": "地勢 /地势"
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"_dis1": "98 2",
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"sense": "physical characteristics of the terrain or surrounding natural environment",
"word": "ligging van het gebied"
},
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"sense": "physical characteristics of the terrain or surrounding natural environment",
"word": "maasto"
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"sense": "physical characteristics of the terrain or surrounding natural environment",
"tags": [
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"word": "örtliche Gegebenheiten"
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"_dis1": "98 2",
"code": "it",
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"sense": "physical characteristics of the terrain or surrounding natural environment",
"tags": [
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"word": "configurazione del terreno"
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"ref": "1901, Charles W. Chesnutt, chapter 17, in The Marrow of Tradition:",
"text": "I'll feel the pulse of my friends and yours, and when we get the lay of the land, the affair can be accomplished much more easily.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "1907, Gene Stratton-Porter, chapter 11, in At the Foot of the Rainbow:",
"text": "\"Now look here, Mary,\" he said, \"I've been expecting you. I warn you before you begin that I cannot sanction your marriage to a Protestant.\"\n\"Oh, but I'm going to convart him!\" cried Mary so quickly that the priest laughed harder than ever.\n\"So that's the lay of the land!\" he chuckled. \"Well, if you'll guarantee that, I'll give in.\"",
"type": "quote"
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{
"ref": "1908, John Fox Jr., chapter 4, in The Trail of the Lonesome Pine:",
"text": "She saw the boy's glance, she shifted her knees impatiently and her little face grew sullen. Hale smiled inwardly, for he thought he could already see the lay of the land, and he wondered that, at such an age, such fierceness could be.",
"type": "quote"
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{
"ref": "1983 July 22, Janet Maslin, “‘Liquid Sky,’ High Fashion and a U.F.O.”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:",
"text": "Slava Tsukerman is a Soviet émigré who has lived in New York City since 1976, apparently long enough for him to get the lay of the land.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2002 March 29, Douglas Waller, “McCain: After Finance Reform, What?”, in Time:",
"text": "McCain: I want to see what the lay of the land is after the November elections.",
"type": "quote"
}
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"The trends, feelings, intentions, and other factors influencing a strategic, political, or social situation."
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"_dis1": "7 93",
"code": "cmn",
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"sense": "trends, feelings influencing a situation",
"word": "形勢 /形势"
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"word": "stand van zaken"
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"sense": "trends, feelings influencing a situation",
"word": "tunnelma"
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"_dis1": "7 93",
"code": "de",
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"sense": "trends, feelings influencing a situation",
"tags": [
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"word": "Lage der Dinge"
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"word": "lay of the land"
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"type": "quote"
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"text": "Because he knew the lay of the land, he could run faster in the darkness than his pursuer.",
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"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "1907, Gene Stratton-Porter, chapter 11, in At the Foot of the Rainbow:",
"text": "\"Now look here, Mary,\" he said, \"I've been expecting you. I warn you before you begin that I cannot sanction your marriage to a Protestant.\"\n\"Oh, but I'm going to convart him!\" cried Mary so quickly that the priest laughed harder than ever.\n\"So that's the lay of the land!\" he chuckled. \"Well, if you'll guarantee that, I'll give in.\"",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "1908, John Fox Jr., chapter 4, in The Trail of the Lonesome Pine:",
"text": "She saw the boy's glance, she shifted her knees impatiently and her little face grew sullen. Hale smiled inwardly, for he thought he could already see the lay of the land, and he wondered that, at such an age, such fierceness could be.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "1983 July 22, Janet Maslin, “‘Liquid Sky,’ High Fashion and a U.F.O.”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:",
"text": "Slava Tsukerman is a Soviet émigré who has lived in New York City since 1976, apparently long enough for him to get the lay of the land.",
"type": "quote"
},
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"ref": "2002 March 29, Douglas Waller, “McCain: After Finance Reform, What?”, in Time:",
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{
"code": "cmn",
"lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
"roman": "dìxíng",
"sense": "physical characteristics of the terrain or surrounding natural environment",
"word": "地形"
},
{
"code": "cmn",
"lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
"roman": "dìshì",
"sense": "physical characteristics of the terrain or surrounding natural environment",
"word": "地勢 /地势"
},
{
"code": "nl",
"lang": "Dutch",
"sense": "physical characteristics of the terrain or surrounding natural environment",
"word": "ligging van het gebied"
},
{
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"sense": "physical characteristics of the terrain or surrounding natural environment",
"word": "maasto"
},
{
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "physical characteristics of the terrain or surrounding natural environment",
"tags": [
"feminine",
"plural"
],
"word": "örtliche Gegebenheiten"
},
{
"code": "it",
"lang": "Italian",
"sense": "physical characteristics of the terrain or surrounding natural environment",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "configurazione del terreno"
},
{
"code": "cmn",
"lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
"roman": "xíngshì",
"sense": "trends, feelings influencing a situation",
"word": "形勢 /形势"
},
{
"code": "nl",
"lang": "Dutch",
"sense": "trends, feelings influencing a situation",
"word": "stand van zaken"
},
{
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"sense": "trends, feelings influencing a situation",
"word": "tunnelma"
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{
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "trends, feelings influencing a situation",
"tags": [
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],
"word": "Lage der Dinge"
},
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"sense": "trends, feelings influencing a situation",
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"tags": [
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"word": "Stand der Dinge"
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],
"word": "lay of the land"
}
Download raw JSONL data for lay of the land meaning in English (5.8kB)
This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-03-01 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-02-21 using wiktextract (7c21d10 and f2e72e5). 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.