See nerf in All languages combined, or Wiktionary
Download JSON data for nerf meaning in English (8.6kB)
{
"etymology_number": 1,
"etymology_text": "Circa 1950s?",
"forms": [
{
"form": "nerfs",
"tags": [
"present",
"singular",
"third-person"
]
},
{
"form": "nerfing",
"tags": [
"participle",
"present"
]
},
{
"form": "nerfed",
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"participle",
"past"
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},
{
"form": "nerfed",
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"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "verb",
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
{
"kind": "topical",
"langcode": "en",
"name": "Motor racing",
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],
"derived": [
{
"word": "nerf bar"
},
{
"word": "nerf ball"
},
{
"word": "nerf net"
}
],
"examples": [
{
"text": "A racer will often nerf another as a psychological tactic."
},
{
"ref": "1953, Henry Gregor Felsen, Street Rod, Random House, page 129",
"text": "\"The crazy fool!\" Ricky exclaimed. \"Nerfing me!\"",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"To bump lightly, whether accidentally or purposefully."
],
"id": "en-nerf-en-verb-X1VpdHF5",
"links": [
[
"motor racing",
"motor racing"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(motor racing, transitive) To bump lightly, whether accidentally or purposefully."
],
"tags": [
"transitive"
],
"topics": [
"hobbies",
"lifestyle",
"motor-racing",
"racing",
"sports"
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"ipa": "/nɜːf/",
"tags": [
"Received-Pronunciation"
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},
{
"ipa": "/nɝf/",
"tags": [
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]
},
{
"rhymes": "-ɜː(ɹ)f"
},
{
"audio": "En-au-nerf.ogg",
"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/6/62/En-au-nerf.ogg/En-au-nerf.ogg.mp3",
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"tags": [
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"text": "Audio (AU)"
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],
"wikipedia": [
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],
"word": "nerf"
}
{
"antonyms": [
{
"word": "ameliorate"
},
{
"english": "game slang",
"word": "buff"
},
{
"word": "improve"
},
{
"word": "renew"
},
{
"word": "renovate"
},
{
"word": "revamp"
}
],
"derived": [
{
"_dis1": "0 0",
"word": "stealth nerf"
}
],
"etymology_number": 2,
"etymology_text": "From the Nerf brand of toys designed as non-dangerous counterparts of existing things, such as sports balls and guns. Originally used to equate a change in the damage of a weapon in a video game to a change from real weapons to Nerf weapons.",
"forms": [
{
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{
"form": "nerfing",
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{
"form": "nerfed",
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"pos": "verb",
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{
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{
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"name": "Video games",
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],
"examples": [
{
"text": "The lightning spell was originally pretty powerful, but in the sequel they nerfed it so it became completely useless."
}
],
"glosses": [
"To change a mechanic, an ability or a character in a video game in order to make a previously dominant strategy less viable or less effective."
],
"id": "en-nerf-en-verb-en:video_games_slang_verb",
"links": [
[
"video game",
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],
[
"mechanic",
"mechanic"
],
[
"ability",
"ability"
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[
"character",
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],
[
"dominant",
"dominant"
],
[
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],
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"(transitive, slang, video games) To change a mechanic, an ability or a character in a video game in order to make a previously dominant strategy less viable or less effective."
],
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],
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{
"word": "gimp"
}
],
"tags": [
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],
"topics": [
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]
},
{
"categories": [],
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{
"ref": "2019 May 17, Fred Lambert, Electrek, retrieved 2019-05-19",
"text": "Tesla nerfs Autopilot in Europe due to new regulations",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"To arbitrarily limit or reduce the capability of."
],
"id": "en-nerf-en-verb-en:transitive_slang",
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[
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[
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[
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"reduce"
],
[
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]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(transitive, slang) To arbitrarily limit or reduce the capability of."
],
"senseid": [
"en:transitive slang"
],
"tags": [
"slang",
"transitive"
],
"translations": [
{
"_dis1": "28 72",
"code": "fr",
"lang": "French",
"sense": "to arbitrarily limit or reduce one's capacity",
"word": "nerfer"
},
{
"_dis1": "28 72",
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "to arbitrarily limit or reduce one's capacity",
"word": "nerfen"
},
{
"_dis1": "28 72",
"code": "it",
"lang": "Italian",
"sense": "to arbitrarily limit or reduce one's capacity",
"word": "nerfare"
},
{
"_dis1": "28 72",
"code": "ja",
"lang": "Japanese",
"roman": "nāfu",
"sense": "to arbitrarily limit or reduce one's capacity",
"word": "ナーフ"
},
{
"_dis1": "28 72",
"code": "scn",
"lang": "Sicilian",
"sense": "to arbitrarily limit or reduce one's capacity",
"word": "nirfari"
},
{
"_dis1": "28 72",
"code": "es",
"lang": "Spanish",
"sense": "to arbitrarily limit or reduce one's capacity",
"word": "nerfear"
},
{
"_dis1": "28 72",
"code": "tr",
"lang": "Turkish",
"sense": "to arbitrarily limit or reduce one's capacity",
"word": "nerflemek"
}
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"ipa": "/nɜːf/",
"tags": [
"Received-Pronunciation"
]
},
{
"ipa": "/nɝf/",
"tags": [
"General-American"
]
},
{
"rhymes": "-ɜː(ɹ)f"
},
{
"audio": "En-au-nerf.ogg",
"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/6/62/En-au-nerf.ogg/En-au-nerf.ogg.mp3",
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"tags": [
"Australia"
],
"text": "Audio (AU)"
}
],
"synonyms": [
{
"_dis1": "0 0",
"word": "debuff"
},
{
"_dis1": "0 0",
"word": "worsen"
},
{
"_dis1": "0 0",
"word": "deteriorate"
},
{
"_dis1": "0 0",
"word": "cripple"
},
{
"_dis1": "0 0",
"word": "declaw"
},
{
"_dis1": "0 0",
"word": "defang"
},
{
"_dis1": "0 0",
"word": "degenerate"
}
],
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"en:nerf (disambiguation)"
],
"word": "nerf"
}
{
"etymology_number": 2,
"etymology_text": "From the Nerf brand of toys designed as non-dangerous counterparts of existing things, such as sports balls and guns. Originally used to equate a change in the damage of a weapon in a video game to a change from real weapons to Nerf weapons.",
"forms": [
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{
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],
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],
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],
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"word": "nerf bar"
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{
"word": "nerf ball"
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"form": "nerfing",
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{
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{
"text": "A racer will often nerf another as a psychological tactic."
},
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"text": "\"The crazy fool!\" Ricky exclaimed. \"Nerfing me!\"",
"type": "quotation"
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"To bump lightly, whether accidentally or purposefully."
],
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]
],
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"(motor racing, transitive) To bump lightly, whether accidentally or purposefully."
],
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{
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{
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"word": "ameliorate"
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"word": "buff"
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{
"word": "improve"
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{
"word": "renew"
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{
"word": "revamp"
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"etymology_number": 2,
"etymology_text": "From the Nerf brand of toys designed as non-dangerous counterparts of existing things, such as sports balls and guns. Originally used to equate a change in the damage of a weapon in a video game to a change from real weapons to Nerf weapons.",
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{
"text": "The lightning spell was originally pretty powerful, but in the sequel they nerfed it so it became completely useless."
}
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"To change a mechanic, an ability or a character in a video game in order to make a previously dominant strategy less viable or less effective."
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],
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],
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"word": "gimp"
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"ref": "2019 May 17, Fred Lambert, Electrek, retrieved 2019-05-19",
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],
"glosses": [
"To arbitrarily limit or reduce the capability of."
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"word": "debuff"
},
{
"word": "worsen"
},
{
"word": "deteriorate"
},
{
"word": "cripple"
},
{
"word": "declaw"
},
{
"word": "defang"
},
{
"word": "degenerate"
}
],
"translations": [
{
"code": "fr",
"lang": "French",
"sense": "to arbitrarily limit or reduce one's capacity",
"word": "nerfer"
},
{
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "to arbitrarily limit or reduce one's capacity",
"word": "nerfen"
},
{
"code": "it",
"lang": "Italian",
"sense": "to arbitrarily limit or reduce one's capacity",
"word": "nerfare"
},
{
"code": "ja",
"lang": "Japanese",
"roman": "nāfu",
"sense": "to arbitrarily limit or reduce one's capacity",
"word": "ナーフ"
},
{
"code": "scn",
"lang": "Sicilian",
"sense": "to arbitrarily limit or reduce one's capacity",
"word": "nirfari"
},
{
"code": "es",
"lang": "Spanish",
"sense": "to arbitrarily limit or reduce one's capacity",
"word": "nerfear"
},
{
"code": "tr",
"lang": "Turkish",
"sense": "to arbitrarily limit or reduce one's capacity",
"word": "nerflemek"
}
],
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"en:nerf (disambiguation)"
],
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"English terms with IPA pronunciation",
"English terms with audio links",
"English verbs",
"Rhymes:English/ɜː(ɹ)f",
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],
"etymology_number": 2,
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"forms": [
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],
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"video game"
],
[
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[
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[
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[
"character",
"character"
],
[
"weapon",
"weapon"
],
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],
"raw_glosses": [
"(slang, video games) The deterioration, weakening or worsening of a character, a weapon, a spell, etc."
],
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"en:video games slang noun"
],
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"slang"
],
"topics": [
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]
}
],
"sounds": [
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{
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{
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},
{
"audio": "En-au-nerf.ogg",
"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/6/62/En-au-nerf.ogg/En-au-nerf.ogg.mp3",
"ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/62/En-au-nerf.ogg",
"tags": [
"Australia"
],
"text": "Audio (AU)"
}
],
"wikipedia": [
"Nerf",
"en:nerf (disambiguation)"
],
"word": "nerf"
}
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.