See no strings attached in All languages combined, or Wiktionary
{
"etymology_text": "From strings (“(figurative) conditions, limitations, restrictions”), possibly from an old prank where a money purse with a hidden string would be placed on the ground, and pulled away when someone tried to pick it up.",
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "phrase"
},
"expansion": "no strings attached",
"name": "head"
}
],
"hyphenation": [
"no"
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "phrase",
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "American English",
"parents": [],
"source": "w"
},
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
"parents": [
"Entries with incorrect language header",
"Entry maintenance"
],
"source": "w"
},
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "Entries with translation boxes",
"parents": [],
"source": "w"
},
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "Pages with 1 entry",
"parents": [],
"source": "w"
},
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "Pages with entries",
"parents": [],
"source": "w"
},
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "Terms with Finnish translations",
"parents": [],
"source": "w"
},
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "Terms with German translations",
"parents": [],
"source": "w"
},
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "Terms with Hungarian translations",
"parents": [],
"source": "w"
},
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "Terms with Italian translations",
"parents": [],
"source": "w"
},
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "Terms with Navajo translations",
"parents": [],
"source": "w"
},
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "Terms with Polish translations",
"parents": [],
"source": "w"
},
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "Terms with Russian translations",
"parents": [],
"source": "w"
},
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "Terms with Spanish translations",
"parents": [],
"source": "w"
},
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "Terms with Vietnamese translations",
"parents": [],
"source": "w"
}
],
"derived": [
{
"tags": [
"adverb",
"noun"
],
"word": "no strings"
},
{
"tags": [
"adjective"
],
"word": "no-strings-attached"
},
{
"word": "string attached"
}
],
"examples": [
{
"text": "For a friend I’ll help out for free, no strings attached.",
"type": "example"
},
{
"ref": "1883 March 24, “Current Topics. Marriage.”, in W. T. Baggett, editor, Pacific Coast Law Journal, […], volume XI, number 5, San Francisco, Calif.: Pacific Coast Law Printing and Publishing Co., […], →OCLC, pages 90–91:",
"text": "In the present century marriage is preceded by a betrothment, gifts are usually interchanged (but with no strings attached), and a causeless withdrawal therefrom by either party is considered infamous.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "1892 February 17, “Cartoons and Comments”, in H[enry] C[uyler] Bunner, editor, Puck, volume XXX, number 780, New York, N.Y.: Keppler & Schwarzmann, →OCLC, page 430, column 2:",
"text": "Mr. [James Gillespie] Blaine's declination—it is always understood that we assume there is no string attached to his letter—is undoubtedly a wise move on his part.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "1902 October, Jack London, chapter XXI, in A Daughter of the Snows, Philadelphia, Pa.: J[oshua] B[allinger] Lippincott Company, →OCLC, page 224:",
"text": "Listen. We've kept it quiet, but she's in with the elect on French Hill. Her claim's prospected the richest of the outfit. Present indication half a million at least. In her own name, no strings attached. Couldn't she take that and go anywhere in the world and reinstate herself?",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "1919, Carolyn Wells, “Case Rivers”, in The Man Who Fell through the Earth, New York, N.Y.: George H[enry] Doran Company, →OCLC, page 170:",
"text": "\"No,\" I assured him, after receiving his cordial welcome, \"my offer had no string attached. I'm more than ready to help in any way I can, to find a niche for you in this old town and fit you into it. It doesn't matter where you hail from, or how you got here; New York is an all-comers' race, and the devil take the hindmost.\"",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "1953 (date written), Sylvia Plath, “Initiation”, in Johnny Panic and the Bible of Dreams: And Other Prose Writings, London: Faber and Faber, published 1977, →ISBN, page 151:",
"text": "Would he ask her out (if he ever did) just for herself, no strings attached?",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "1972 July 27, Andrew J[ohn] Biemiller, witness, “Statement of Andrew J. Biemiller, Director, Department of Legislation, American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, Accompanied by Nathaniel Goldfinger, Director, Research Department, and Arnold Cantor, Economist, Research Department”, in Revenue Sharing: Hearings before the Committee on Finance, United States Senate, Ninety-second Congress, Second Session on H.R. 14370 to Provide Payments to Localities for High-priority Expenditures, to Encourage the States to Supplement Their Revenue Sources, and to Authorize Federal Collection of State Individual Income Taxes […], Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, →OCLC, page 452:",
"text": "As to the $12 billion State share, there is not even the pretense of an attempt at congressional oversight, Federal control, or standards of performance. The State share is totally no-string attached.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2005, J[ohn] M[axwell] Coetzee, chapter 20, in Slow Man, London: Vintage, →ISBN, page 151:",
"text": "'I asked him to think again. I asked him to put Drago's interests first. I repeated that there were no strings attached to my offer.' / 'No visible strings, you mean.'",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2013, Tim Myers, Melissa Sheppard (lyrics and music), “Bad Things”, in Dear You, performed by Meiko, Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, Calif.: Fantasy Records, published 2014, →OCLC:",
"text": "You say that you want / All of my love / But let's be honest, we don't need all that / I like it better with no strings attached",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2020 November 18, Richard Clinnick, “Network News: Emergency Funding Package of up to £1.8bn Agreed for TfL”, in Rail, Peterborough, Cambridgeshire: Bauer Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 15:",
"text": "He also criticised what he called the Government's \"bailout\" of the privatised rail companies with no strings attached, stating: \"There is simply no reason why the same easy solution could not have been applied to London,[…].\"",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2021, Andrei Znamenski, “Regime of Goodness: Social Democracy and the Swedish Model, 1920s–1990s”, in Socialism as a Secular Creed: A Modern Global History, Lanham, Md.: Lexington Books, The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, →ISBN, page 205:",
"text": "When government delivers handouts with no string attached, more people naturally want to use and abuse them, which eventually ruins economy and drains a country's wealth. Essentially the welfare state destroys the ethic which sustains this very state.",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"Without conditions or obligations; without a catch."
],
"id": "en-no_strings_attached-en-phrase-W6QceBmp",
"links": [
[
"conditions",
"condition#Noun"
],
[
"obligation",
"obligation"
],
[
"catch",
"catch#Noun"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(idiomatic, originally US, informal) Without conditions or obligations; without a catch."
],
"related": [
{
"word": "no questions asked"
},
{
"word": "quid pro quo"
},
{
"word": "pull the strings"
}
],
"synonyms": [
{
"word": "unconditionally"
},
{
"word": "ziplessly"
},
{
"tags": [
"rare"
],
"word": "no string attached"
},
{
"tags": [
"initialism"
],
"word": "NSA"
}
],
"tags": [
"idiomatic",
"informal"
],
"translations": [
{
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"sense": "without conditions or obligations",
"word": "ilman sitoumuksia"
},
{
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "without conditions or obligations",
"word": "bedingungslos"
},
{
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "without conditions or obligations",
"word": "ohne Bedingungen"
},
{
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "without conditions or obligations",
"word": "ohne Haken und Ösen"
},
{
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "without conditions or obligations",
"word": "ohne jegliche Verpflichtung"
},
{
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "without conditions or obligations",
"word": "vollkommen unverbindlich"
},
{
"code": "hu",
"lang": "Hungarian",
"note": "(mindenféle/mindennemű/bármiféle/bárminemű) elköteleződés/feltétel/kikötés nélkül",
"sense": "without conditions or obligations"
},
{
"code": "it",
"lang": "Italian",
"sense": "without conditions or obligations",
"word": "senza se e senza ma"
},
{
"code": "nv",
"lang": "Navajo",
"sense": "without conditions or obligations",
"word": "doo bidiitʼiʼii"
},
{
"code": "pl",
"lang": "Polish",
"sense": "without conditions or obligations",
"word": "bez zobowiązań"
},
{
"code": "ru",
"lang": "Russian",
"roman": "bez vsjakix uslovij",
"sense": "without conditions or obligations",
"word": "без всяких условий"
},
{
"code": "ru",
"lang": "Russian",
"note": "без за́дней мы́сли (bez zádnej mýsli, literally “without an ulterior motive”)",
"sense": "without conditions or obligations"
},
{
"code": "es",
"lang": "Spanish",
"sense": "without conditions or obligations",
"word": "sin ataduras"
},
{
"code": "es",
"lang": "Spanish",
"sense": "without conditions or obligations",
"word": "sin compromiso"
},
{
"code": "vi",
"lang": "Vietnamese",
"sense": "without conditions or obligations",
"tags": [
"uncommon"
],
"word": "rộng cẳng"
}
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"ipa": "/nəʊ ˌstɹɪŋz‿əˈtæt͡ʃt/",
"tags": [
"Received-Pronunciation"
]
},
{
"ipa": "/noʊ ˌstɹɪŋz‿əˈtæt͡ʃt/",
"tags": [
"General-American"
]
},
{
"audio": "En-au-no strings attached.ogg",
"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/9/98/En-au-no_strings_attached.ogg/En-au-no_strings_attached.ogg.mp3",
"ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/98/En-au-no_strings_attached.ogg"
},
{
"rhymes": "-ætʃt"
}
],
"word": "no strings attached"
}
{
"derived": [
{
"tags": [
"adverb",
"noun"
],
"word": "no strings"
},
{
"tags": [
"adjective"
],
"word": "no-strings-attached"
},
{
"word": "string attached"
}
],
"etymology_text": "From strings (“(figurative) conditions, limitations, restrictions”), possibly from an old prank where a money purse with a hidden string would be placed on the ground, and pulled away when someone tried to pick it up.",
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "phrase"
},
"expansion": "no strings attached",
"name": "head"
}
],
"hyphenation": [
"no"
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "phrase",
"related": [
{
"word": "no questions asked"
},
{
"word": "quid pro quo"
},
{
"word": "pull the strings"
}
],
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
"American English",
"English entries with incorrect language header",
"English idioms",
"English informal terms",
"English lemmas",
"English multiword terms",
"English phrases",
"English terms with quotations",
"English terms with usage examples",
"Entries with translation boxes",
"Pages with 1 entry",
"Pages with entries",
"Rhymes:English/ætʃt",
"Rhymes:English/ætʃt/4 syllables",
"Terms with Finnish translations",
"Terms with German translations",
"Terms with Hungarian translations",
"Terms with Italian translations",
"Terms with Navajo translations",
"Terms with Polish translations",
"Terms with Russian translations",
"Terms with Spanish translations",
"Terms with Vietnamese translations"
],
"examples": [
{
"text": "For a friend I’ll help out for free, no strings attached.",
"type": "example"
},
{
"ref": "1883 March 24, “Current Topics. Marriage.”, in W. T. Baggett, editor, Pacific Coast Law Journal, […], volume XI, number 5, San Francisco, Calif.: Pacific Coast Law Printing and Publishing Co., […], →OCLC, pages 90–91:",
"text": "In the present century marriage is preceded by a betrothment, gifts are usually interchanged (but with no strings attached), and a causeless withdrawal therefrom by either party is considered infamous.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "1892 February 17, “Cartoons and Comments”, in H[enry] C[uyler] Bunner, editor, Puck, volume XXX, number 780, New York, N.Y.: Keppler & Schwarzmann, →OCLC, page 430, column 2:",
"text": "Mr. [James Gillespie] Blaine's declination—it is always understood that we assume there is no string attached to his letter—is undoubtedly a wise move on his part.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "1902 October, Jack London, chapter XXI, in A Daughter of the Snows, Philadelphia, Pa.: J[oshua] B[allinger] Lippincott Company, →OCLC, page 224:",
"text": "Listen. We've kept it quiet, but she's in with the elect on French Hill. Her claim's prospected the richest of the outfit. Present indication half a million at least. In her own name, no strings attached. Couldn't she take that and go anywhere in the world and reinstate herself?",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "1919, Carolyn Wells, “Case Rivers”, in The Man Who Fell through the Earth, New York, N.Y.: George H[enry] Doran Company, →OCLC, page 170:",
"text": "\"No,\" I assured him, after receiving his cordial welcome, \"my offer had no string attached. I'm more than ready to help in any way I can, to find a niche for you in this old town and fit you into it. It doesn't matter where you hail from, or how you got here; New York is an all-comers' race, and the devil take the hindmost.\"",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "1953 (date written), Sylvia Plath, “Initiation”, in Johnny Panic and the Bible of Dreams: And Other Prose Writings, London: Faber and Faber, published 1977, →ISBN, page 151:",
"text": "Would he ask her out (if he ever did) just for herself, no strings attached?",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "1972 July 27, Andrew J[ohn] Biemiller, witness, “Statement of Andrew J. Biemiller, Director, Department of Legislation, American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, Accompanied by Nathaniel Goldfinger, Director, Research Department, and Arnold Cantor, Economist, Research Department”, in Revenue Sharing: Hearings before the Committee on Finance, United States Senate, Ninety-second Congress, Second Session on H.R. 14370 to Provide Payments to Localities for High-priority Expenditures, to Encourage the States to Supplement Their Revenue Sources, and to Authorize Federal Collection of State Individual Income Taxes […], Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, →OCLC, page 452:",
"text": "As to the $12 billion State share, there is not even the pretense of an attempt at congressional oversight, Federal control, or standards of performance. The State share is totally no-string attached.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2005, J[ohn] M[axwell] Coetzee, chapter 20, in Slow Man, London: Vintage, →ISBN, page 151:",
"text": "'I asked him to think again. I asked him to put Drago's interests first. I repeated that there were no strings attached to my offer.' / 'No visible strings, you mean.'",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2013, Tim Myers, Melissa Sheppard (lyrics and music), “Bad Things”, in Dear You, performed by Meiko, Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, Calif.: Fantasy Records, published 2014, →OCLC:",
"text": "You say that you want / All of my love / But let's be honest, we don't need all that / I like it better with no strings attached",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2020 November 18, Richard Clinnick, “Network News: Emergency Funding Package of up to £1.8bn Agreed for TfL”, in Rail, Peterborough, Cambridgeshire: Bauer Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 15:",
"text": "He also criticised what he called the Government's \"bailout\" of the privatised rail companies with no strings attached, stating: \"There is simply no reason why the same easy solution could not have been applied to London,[…].\"",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2021, Andrei Znamenski, “Regime of Goodness: Social Democracy and the Swedish Model, 1920s–1990s”, in Socialism as a Secular Creed: A Modern Global History, Lanham, Md.: Lexington Books, The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, →ISBN, page 205:",
"text": "When government delivers handouts with no string attached, more people naturally want to use and abuse them, which eventually ruins economy and drains a country's wealth. Essentially the welfare state destroys the ethic which sustains this very state.",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"Without conditions or obligations; without a catch."
],
"links": [
[
"conditions",
"condition#Noun"
],
[
"obligation",
"obligation"
],
[
"catch",
"catch#Noun"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(idiomatic, originally US, informal) Without conditions or obligations; without a catch."
],
"synonyms": [
{
"word": "unconditionally"
},
{
"word": "ziplessly"
}
],
"tags": [
"idiomatic",
"informal"
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"ipa": "/nəʊ ˌstɹɪŋz‿əˈtæt͡ʃt/",
"tags": [
"Received-Pronunciation"
]
},
{
"ipa": "/noʊ ˌstɹɪŋz‿əˈtæt͡ʃt/",
"tags": [
"General-American"
]
},
{
"audio": "En-au-no strings attached.ogg",
"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/9/98/En-au-no_strings_attached.ogg/En-au-no_strings_attached.ogg.mp3",
"ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/98/En-au-no_strings_attached.ogg"
},
{
"rhymes": "-ætʃt"
}
],
"synonyms": [
{
"tags": [
"rare"
],
"word": "no string attached"
},
{
"tags": [
"initialism"
],
"word": "NSA"
}
],
"translations": [
{
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"sense": "without conditions or obligations",
"word": "ilman sitoumuksia"
},
{
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "without conditions or obligations",
"word": "bedingungslos"
},
{
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "without conditions or obligations",
"word": "ohne Bedingungen"
},
{
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "without conditions or obligations",
"word": "ohne Haken und Ösen"
},
{
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "without conditions or obligations",
"word": "ohne jegliche Verpflichtung"
},
{
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "without conditions or obligations",
"word": "vollkommen unverbindlich"
},
{
"code": "hu",
"lang": "Hungarian",
"note": "(mindenféle/mindennemű/bármiféle/bárminemű) elköteleződés/feltétel/kikötés nélkül",
"sense": "without conditions or obligations"
},
{
"code": "it",
"lang": "Italian",
"sense": "without conditions or obligations",
"word": "senza se e senza ma"
},
{
"code": "nv",
"lang": "Navajo",
"sense": "without conditions or obligations",
"word": "doo bidiitʼiʼii"
},
{
"code": "pl",
"lang": "Polish",
"sense": "without conditions or obligations",
"word": "bez zobowiązań"
},
{
"code": "ru",
"lang": "Russian",
"roman": "bez vsjakix uslovij",
"sense": "without conditions or obligations",
"word": "без всяких условий"
},
{
"code": "ru",
"lang": "Russian",
"note": "без за́дней мы́сли (bez zádnej mýsli, literally “without an ulterior motive”)",
"sense": "without conditions or obligations"
},
{
"code": "es",
"lang": "Spanish",
"sense": "without conditions or obligations",
"word": "sin ataduras"
},
{
"code": "es",
"lang": "Spanish",
"sense": "without conditions or obligations",
"word": "sin compromiso"
},
{
"code": "vi",
"lang": "Vietnamese",
"sense": "without conditions or obligations",
"tags": [
"uncommon"
],
"word": "rộng cẳng"
}
],
"word": "no strings attached"
}
Download raw JSONL data for no strings attached meaning in English (9.0kB)
{
"called_from": "translations/609-20230504",
"msg": "Translation too long compared to word, so it is skipped",
"path": [
"no strings attached"
],
"section": "English",
"subsection": "phrase",
"title": "no strings attached",
"trace": ""
}
This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-11-06 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-10-02 using wiktextract (fbeafe8 and 7f03c9b). 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.