See nice guys finish last in All languages combined, or Wiktionary
Download JSON data for nice guys finish last meaning in English (3.4kB)
{
"etymology_text": "US 1946, condensed from a comment by a baseball manager Leo Durocher. The original quote was “The nice guys are all over there, in seventh place.” (1946 July 6), about the 1946 New York Giants — seventh place was next-to-last place in the National League. This was shortly afterwards rendered as “‘Nice Guys’ Wind Up in Last Place, Scoffs Lippy”, hence giving the present form.",
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"2": "proverb",
"head": "nice guys finish last"
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"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "proverb",
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
"parents": [
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"source": "w"
},
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "English proverbs",
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}
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1956 November 19, “National Affairs: Nice Guy Finishes First”, in Time",
"text": "The size of his victory . . . contradicted the maxim of latter-day fellow Californian Leo Durocher, who once said positively: \"Nice guys finish last.\"",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "1998 March 23, Seth Schiesel, “All Too Soon, New F.C.C. Chief Finds Warm Welcome Is Cooling”, in New York Times, retrieved 2012-07-10",
"text": "He can be as moderate as he likes. Nobody else will be. In Washington these days, nice guys finish last.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2011 December 5, Richard Hall, “I didn't get where I am today by being nice... Study reveals agreeable men earn £4,500 less than their ruthless colleagues”, in The Independent, UK, retrieved 2012-07-10",
"text": "Nonetheless, a team of business experts claims to have proved the pessimistic notion that \"nice guys finish last\" – at least where money is concerned.",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"People who are decent, friendly, and agreeable tend to be unsuccessful because they are outmaneuvered or overwhelmed by others who are not so decent, friendly, or agreeable."
],
"id": "en-nice_guys_finish_last-en-proverb-4cX2PJ3Q",
"links": [
[
"decent",
"decent"
],
[
"friendly",
"friendly"
],
[
"agreeable",
"agreeable"
],
[
"unsuccessful",
"unsuccessful"
],
[
"outmaneuver",
"outmaneuver"
],
[
"overwhelm",
"overwhelm"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(idiomatic) People who are decent, friendly, and agreeable tend to be unsuccessful because they are outmaneuvered or overwhelmed by others who are not so decent, friendly, or agreeable."
],
"related": [
{
"word": "the good die young"
},
{
"word": "war makes thieves, and peace hangs them"
}
],
"tags": [
"idiomatic"
],
"translations": [
{
"code": "fr",
"lang": "French",
"sense": "people who are decent, friendly, and agreeable tend to be unsuccessful because they are outmaneuvered or overwhelmed",
"word": "qui se fait brebis le loup le mange"
},
{
"code": "hu",
"lang": "Hungarian",
"sense": "people who are decent, friendly, and agreeable tend to be unsuccessful because they are outmaneuvered or overwhelmed",
"word": "a rendesek végeznek mindig az utolsó helyen"
}
],
"wikipedia": [
"1946 New York Giants (MLB) season",
"Leo Durocher"
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"audio": "En-au-nice guys finish last.ogg",
"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/5/52/En-au-nice_guys_finish_last.ogg/En-au-nice_guys_finish_last.ogg.mp3",
"ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/52/En-au-nice_guys_finish_last.ogg",
"tags": [
"Australia"
],
"text": "Audio (AU)"
}
],
"word": "nice guys finish last"
}
{
"etymology_text": "US 1946, condensed from a comment by a baseball manager Leo Durocher. The original quote was “The nice guys are all over there, in seventh place.” (1946 July 6), about the 1946 New York Giants — seventh place was next-to-last place in the National League. This was shortly afterwards rendered as “‘Nice Guys’ Wind Up in Last Place, Scoffs Lippy”, hence giving the present form.",
"head_templates": [
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"2": "proverb",
"head": "nice guys finish last"
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"expansion": "nice guys finish last",
"name": "head"
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],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "proverb",
"related": [
{
"word": "the good die young"
},
{
"word": "war makes thieves, and peace hangs them"
}
],
"senses": [
{
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"English idioms",
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"English proverbs",
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"English terms with quotations"
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1956 November 19, “National Affairs: Nice Guy Finishes First”, in Time",
"text": "The size of his victory . . . contradicted the maxim of latter-day fellow Californian Leo Durocher, who once said positively: \"Nice guys finish last.\"",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "1998 March 23, Seth Schiesel, “All Too Soon, New F.C.C. Chief Finds Warm Welcome Is Cooling”, in New York Times, retrieved 2012-07-10",
"text": "He can be as moderate as he likes. Nobody else will be. In Washington these days, nice guys finish last.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2011 December 5, Richard Hall, “I didn't get where I am today by being nice... Study reveals agreeable men earn £4,500 less than their ruthless colleagues”, in The Independent, UK, retrieved 2012-07-10",
"text": "Nonetheless, a team of business experts claims to have proved the pessimistic notion that \"nice guys finish last\" – at least where money is concerned.",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"People who are decent, friendly, and agreeable tend to be unsuccessful because they are outmaneuvered or overwhelmed by others who are not so decent, friendly, or agreeable."
],
"links": [
[
"decent",
"decent"
],
[
"friendly",
"friendly"
],
[
"agreeable",
"agreeable"
],
[
"unsuccessful",
"unsuccessful"
],
[
"outmaneuver",
"outmaneuver"
],
[
"overwhelm",
"overwhelm"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(idiomatic) People who are decent, friendly, and agreeable tend to be unsuccessful because they are outmaneuvered or overwhelmed by others who are not so decent, friendly, or agreeable."
],
"tags": [
"idiomatic"
],
"wikipedia": [
"1946 New York Giants (MLB) season",
"Leo Durocher"
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"audio": "En-au-nice guys finish last.ogg",
"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/5/52/En-au-nice_guys_finish_last.ogg/En-au-nice_guys_finish_last.ogg.mp3",
"ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/52/En-au-nice_guys_finish_last.ogg",
"tags": [
"Australia"
],
"text": "Audio (AU)"
}
],
"translations": [
{
"code": "fr",
"lang": "French",
"sense": "people who are decent, friendly, and agreeable tend to be unsuccessful because they are outmaneuvered or overwhelmed",
"word": "qui se fait brebis le loup le mange"
},
{
"code": "hu",
"lang": "Hungarian",
"sense": "people who are decent, friendly, and agreeable tend to be unsuccessful because they are outmaneuvered or overwhelmed",
"word": "a rendesek végeznek mindig az utolsó helyen"
}
],
"word": "nice guys finish last"
}
This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-09 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-05-02 using wiktextract (4d5d0bb and edd475d). 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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