"oater" meaning in English

See oater in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

IPA: /ˈoʊ.tɚ/ Audio: LL-Q1860 (eng)-I learned some phrases-oater.wav , En-us-oater.oga Forms: oaters [plural]
Rhymes: -əʊtə(ɹ) Etymology: From oat + -er (“Variety -er”). ~1945-50, alluding to the fodder for horses, which are common in the movies. Etymology templates: {{suffix|en|oat|er|id2=entertainment|t2=Variety -er}} oat + -er (“Variety -er”) Head templates: {{en-noun}} oater (plural oaters)
  1. (informal, US, entertainment) A movie or television show about cowboy or frontier life; a western movie. Tags: US, informal Synonyms: horse opera, oat opera Related terms: soap opera, sudser

Inflected forms

{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "oat",
        "3": "er",
        "id2": "entertainment",
        "t2": "Variety -er"
      },
      "expansion": "oat + -er (“Variety -er”)",
      "name": "suffix"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From oat + -er (“Variety -er”). ~1945-50, alluding to the fodder for horses, which are common in the movies.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "oaters",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "oater (plural oaters)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "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": "English terms suffixed with -er (entertainment)",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1949 January 10, “The Great American Horse Opera”, in Life:",
          "text": "In recent years the western or horse opera, known in the trade as the \"oater,\" has come to be recognized as an art form just as formal as the ballet or the symphony. […] To prove his contention that all this is so, Life Photographer John Florea took these unusual pictures during the filming of Yellow Sky. This is a $1,450,000 western with big-name stars […] and technical talent from 20th Century's top drawer, but is basically a typical oater.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1995, Louis Decimus Rubin, Jerry Leath Mills, A Writer's Companion:",
          "text": "By far the more common was the low-budget \"hoss opera\" or \"oater,\" ground out in relentless numbers by studios such as Universal and Republic, and designed basically for edification of the young, who took them in on Fridays and Saturdays[…] There were, to be sure, degrees of the oater; a somewhat more subtle version, designed for adult as well as child viewing, was also made.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2006 April 2, Timothy Egan, “Monument Valley: Endless Earth, Infinite Sky”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:",
          "text": "While trying to run a trading post at the depths of the Great Depression, Harry Goulding heard that a Hollywood director was looking for the perfect Western backdrop for his next oater.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A movie or television show about cowboy or frontier life; a western movie."
      ],
      "id": "en-oater-en-noun-jvzXcnfg",
      "links": [
        [
          "movie",
          "movie"
        ],
        [
          "television",
          "television"
        ],
        [
          "show",
          "show"
        ],
        [
          "cowboy",
          "cowboy"
        ],
        [
          "frontier",
          "frontier"
        ],
        [
          "life",
          "life"
        ],
        [
          "western",
          "western"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(informal, US, entertainment) A movie or television show about cowboy or frontier life; a western movie."
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "word": "soap opera"
        },
        {
          "word": "sudser"
        }
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "horse opera"
        },
        {
          "word": "oat opera"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "US",
        "informal"
      ],
      "topics": [
        "entertainment",
        "lifestyle"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈoʊ.tɚ/"
    },
    {
      "audio": "LL-Q1860 (eng)-I learned some phrases-oater.wav",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/d/df/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-I_learned_some_phrases-oater.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-I_learned_some_phrases-oater.wav.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/d/df/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-I_learned_some_phrases-oater.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-I_learned_some_phrases-oater.wav.ogg"
    },
    {
      "audio": "En-us-oater.oga",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/c/cd/En-us-oater.oga/En-us-oater.oga.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cd/En-us-oater.oga"
    },
    {
      "rhymes": "-əʊtə(ɹ)"
    },
    {
      "homophone": "odor stripped-by-parse_pron_post_template_fn"
    }
  ],
  "word": "oater"
}
{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "oat",
        "3": "er",
        "id2": "entertainment",
        "t2": "Variety -er"
      },
      "expansion": "oat + -er (“Variety -er”)",
      "name": "suffix"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From oat + -er (“Variety -er”). ~1945-50, alluding to the fodder for horses, which are common in the movies.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "oaters",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "oater (plural oaters)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "soap opera"
    },
    {
      "word": "sudser"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "American English",
        "English 1-syllable words",
        "English countable nouns",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English informal terms",
        "English lemmas",
        "English nouns",
        "English terms suffixed with -er (entertainment)",
        "English terms with homophones",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries",
        "Rhymes:English/əʊtə(ɹ)",
        "Rhymes:English/əʊtə(ɹ)/2 syllables"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1949 January 10, “The Great American Horse Opera”, in Life:",
          "text": "In recent years the western or horse opera, known in the trade as the \"oater,\" has come to be recognized as an art form just as formal as the ballet or the symphony. […] To prove his contention that all this is so, Life Photographer John Florea took these unusual pictures during the filming of Yellow Sky. This is a $1,450,000 western with big-name stars […] and technical talent from 20th Century's top drawer, but is basically a typical oater.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1995, Louis Decimus Rubin, Jerry Leath Mills, A Writer's Companion:",
          "text": "By far the more common was the low-budget \"hoss opera\" or \"oater,\" ground out in relentless numbers by studios such as Universal and Republic, and designed basically for edification of the young, who took them in on Fridays and Saturdays[…] There were, to be sure, degrees of the oater; a somewhat more subtle version, designed for adult as well as child viewing, was also made.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2006 April 2, Timothy Egan, “Monument Valley: Endless Earth, Infinite Sky”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:",
          "text": "While trying to run a trading post at the depths of the Great Depression, Harry Goulding heard that a Hollywood director was looking for the perfect Western backdrop for his next oater.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A movie or television show about cowboy or frontier life; a western movie."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "movie",
          "movie"
        ],
        [
          "television",
          "television"
        ],
        [
          "show",
          "show"
        ],
        [
          "cowboy",
          "cowboy"
        ],
        [
          "frontier",
          "frontier"
        ],
        [
          "life",
          "life"
        ],
        [
          "western",
          "western"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(informal, US, entertainment) A movie or television show about cowboy or frontier life; a western movie."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "horse opera"
        },
        {
          "word": "oat opera"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "US",
        "informal"
      ],
      "topics": [
        "entertainment",
        "lifestyle"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈoʊ.tɚ/"
    },
    {
      "audio": "LL-Q1860 (eng)-I learned some phrases-oater.wav",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/d/df/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-I_learned_some_phrases-oater.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-I_learned_some_phrases-oater.wav.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/d/df/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-I_learned_some_phrases-oater.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-I_learned_some_phrases-oater.wav.ogg"
    },
    {
      "audio": "En-us-oater.oga",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/c/cd/En-us-oater.oga/En-us-oater.oga.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cd/En-us-oater.oga"
    },
    {
      "rhymes": "-əʊtə(ɹ)"
    },
    {
      "homophone": "odor stripped-by-parse_pron_post_template_fn"
    }
  ],
  "word": "oater"
}

Download raw JSONL data for oater meaning in English (3.6kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-02-15 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-02-02 using wiktextract (ca09fec and c40eb85). 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.