"more than one can shake a stick at" meaning in English

See more than one can shake a stick at in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Adjective

Etymology: Unknown. American English, in use since about 1800. Etymology templates: {{unk|en}} Unknown Head templates: {{en-adj|+}} more than one can shake a stick at (comparative form only)
  1. Occurring in abundance; of a large quantity; many. Tags: comparative-only Synonyms: more than one can poke a stick at, more than you can shake a stick at Translations (occurring in abundance): paljon (Finnish), eine ganze Menge [feminine] (German), mint égen a csillag (Hungarian), più di quanto tu possa immaginare (Italian), куры не клюю́т (kury ne kljujút) (Russian), пруд пруди́ (prud prudí) (Russian)
    Sense id: en-more_than_one_can_shake_a_stick_at-en-adj-GdFjm5af Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header

Alternative forms

Download JSON data for more than one can shake a stick at meaning in English (2.5kB)

{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en"
      },
      "expansion": "Unknown",
      "name": "unk"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "Unknown. American English, in use since about 1800.",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "+"
      },
      "expansion": "more than one can shake a stick at (comparative form only)",
      "name": "en-adj"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "adj",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
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      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1883, Edward Payson Roe, chapter 39, in His Sombre Rivals: A Story of the Civil War",
          "text": "\"[H]e's laid out more 'Federates dan he can shake a stick at.\"",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1910, Jack London, chapter 16, in Burning Daylight",
          "text": "\"I've got more companies than you can shake a stick at. There's the Alameda & Contra Costa Land Syndicate, the Consolidated Street Railways, the Yerba Buena Ferry Company, the United Water Company, the Piedmont Realty Company, the Fairview and Portola Hotel Company, and half a dozen more that I've got to refer to a notebook to remember.\"",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2004 August 15, Ben Stein, “For Sale: The Ultimate Status Symbol”, in New York Times, retrieved 2014-06-12",
          "text": "There are more billionaires than you can shake a stick at.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Occurring in abundance; of a large quantity; many."
      ],
      "id": "en-more_than_one_can_shake_a_stick_at-en-adj-GdFjm5af",
      "links": [
        [
          "abundance",
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        ],
        [
          "quantity",
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        ],
        [
          "many",
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        ]
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "more than one can poke a stick at"
        },
        {
          "word": "more than you can shake a stick at"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "comparative-only"
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "occurring in abundance",
          "word": "paljon"
        },
        {
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "sense": "occurring in abundance",
          "tags": [
            "feminine"
          ],
          "word": "eine ganze Menge"
        },
        {
          "code": "hu",
          "lang": "Hungarian",
          "sense": "occurring in abundance",
          "word": "mint égen a csillag"
        },
        {
          "code": "it",
          "lang": "Italian",
          "sense": "occurring in abundance",
          "word": "più di quanto tu possa immaginare"
        },
        {
          "code": "ru",
          "lang": "Russian",
          "roman": "kury ne kljujút",
          "sense": "occurring in abundance",
          "word": "куры не клюю́т"
        },
        {
          "code": "ru",
          "lang": "Russian",
          "roman": "prud prudí",
          "sense": "occurring in abundance",
          "word": "пруд пруди́"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "more than one can shake a stick at"
}
{
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  "head_templates": [
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      "args": {
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  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "adj",
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        "English comparative-only adjectives",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English terms with unknown etymologies",
        "Quotation templates to be cleaned"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1883, Edward Payson Roe, chapter 39, in His Sombre Rivals: A Story of the Civil War",
          "text": "\"[H]e's laid out more 'Federates dan he can shake a stick at.\"",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1910, Jack London, chapter 16, in Burning Daylight",
          "text": "\"I've got more companies than you can shake a stick at. There's the Alameda & Contra Costa Land Syndicate, the Consolidated Street Railways, the Yerba Buena Ferry Company, the United Water Company, the Piedmont Realty Company, the Fairview and Portola Hotel Company, and half a dozen more that I've got to refer to a notebook to remember.\"",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2004 August 15, Ben Stein, “For Sale: The Ultimate Status Symbol”, in New York Times, retrieved 2014-06-12",
          "text": "There are more billionaires than you can shake a stick at.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Occurring in abundance; of a large quantity; many."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "abundance",
          "abundance"
        ],
        [
          "quantity",
          "quantity"
        ],
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          "many",
          "many"
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      ],
      "tags": [
        "comparative-only"
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  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "more than one can poke a stick at"
    },
    {
      "word": "more than you can shake a stick at"
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "occurring in abundance",
      "word": "paljon"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "occurring in abundance",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "eine ganze Menge"
    },
    {
      "code": "hu",
      "lang": "Hungarian",
      "sense": "occurring in abundance",
      "word": "mint égen a csillag"
    },
    {
      "code": "it",
      "lang": "Italian",
      "sense": "occurring in abundance",
      "word": "più di quanto tu possa immaginare"
    },
    {
      "code": "ru",
      "lang": "Russian",
      "roman": "kury ne kljujút",
      "sense": "occurring in abundance",
      "word": "куры не клюю́т"
    },
    {
      "code": "ru",
      "lang": "Russian",
      "roman": "prud prudí",
      "sense": "occurring in abundance",
      "word": "пруд пруди́"
    }
  ],
  "word": "more than one can shake a stick at"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-04-26 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-04-21 using wiktextract (93a6c53 and 21a9316). 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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