"never-never" meaning in English

See never-never in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Forms: the never-never [canonical]
Etymology: Suggesting that the would-be purchaser may never manage to complete the payments and take ownership. Head templates: {{head|en|noun|head=the never-never}} the never-never
  1. (colloquial, Commonwealth, originally Australian) The hire purchase system, or credit purchases. Tags: Commonwealth, colloquial
    Sense id: en-never-never-en-noun-ClibyGjx Categories (other): Commonwealth English, English entries with incorrect language header, English reduplicated coordinated pairs, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 95 5 Disambiguation of English reduplicated coordinated pairs: 82 18 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 95 5 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 95 5
  2. The Australian outback
    Sense id: en-never-never-en-noun-6sb07dLM
{
  "etymology_text": "Suggesting that the would-be purchaser may never manage to complete the payments and take ownership.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "the never-never",
      "tags": [
        "canonical"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "noun",
        "head": "the never-never"
      },
      "expansion": "the never-never",
      "name": "head"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Commonwealth English",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "95 5",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "82 18",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English reduplicated coordinated pairs",
          "parents": [
            "Reduplicated coordinated pairs",
            "Coordinated pairs",
            "Reduplications",
            "Terms by etymology"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "95 5",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "95 5",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "The hire purchase system, or credit purchases."
      ],
      "id": "en-never-never-en-noun-ClibyGjx",
      "links": [
        [
          "hire purchase",
          "hire purchase"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(colloquial, Commonwealth, originally Australian) The hire purchase system, or credit purchases."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "Commonwealth",
        "colloquial"
      ]
    },
    {
      "glosses": [
        "The Australian outback"
      ],
      "id": "en-never-never-en-noun-6sb07dLM",
      "links": [
        [
          "outback",
          "outback"
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "never-never"
}
{
  "categories": [
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English nouns",
    "English reduplicated coordinated pairs",
    "Pages with 1 entry",
    "Pages with entries"
  ],
  "etymology_text": "Suggesting that the would-be purchaser may never manage to complete the payments and take ownership.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "the never-never",
      "tags": [
        "canonical"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "noun",
        "head": "the never-never"
      },
      "expansion": "the never-never",
      "name": "head"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "Commonwealth English",
        "English colloquialisms"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "The hire purchase system, or credit purchases."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "hire purchase",
          "hire purchase"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(colloquial, Commonwealth, originally Australian) The hire purchase system, or credit purchases."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "Commonwealth",
        "colloquial"
      ]
    },
    {
      "glosses": [
        "The Australian outback"
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "outback",
          "outback"
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "never-never"
}

Download raw JSONL data for never-never meaning in English (1.0kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-03-23 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-03-21 using wiktextract (fef8596 and 633533e). 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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