See only game in town in All languages combined, or Wiktionary
Download JSON data for only game in town meaning in English (4.3kB)
{
"etymology_text": "An allusion to a gambling venue.",
"forms": [
{
"form": "only games in town",
"tags": [
"plural"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "only games in town"
},
"expansion": "only game in town (plural only games in town)",
"name": "en-noun"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "noun",
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
"parents": [
"Entries with incorrect language header",
"Entry maintenance"
],
"source": "w"
},
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "Undetermined quotations with omitted translation",
"parents": [
"Quotations with omitted translation",
"Entry maintenance"
],
"source": "w"
}
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1973, Stanley Elkin, Searches & Seizures: Three Novellas, Boston, Mass.: Nonpareil Books, David R. Godine, Publisher, page 265",
"text": "It was the first elected position he had ever held, his single incumbency and, he had to admit, his best prospect, the only game in town.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "1995 November 12, Adam Rogers, “Now for some Hotjava”, in Newsweek, retrieved 2014-01-01",
"text": "Java won't long be the only game in town. Microsoft already plans to publish a rival software, code-named Blackbird.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "1999 November, Rebecca Rohan, “Beyond the browser wars: Navigator and Explorer aren't the only games in town”, in Black Enterprise, volume 30, number 3, New York, N.Y.: Earl G. Graves Publishing, →ISSN, page 48",
"text": "If you surf the Web, chances are you're using some version of either Netscape Navigator or Microsoft Internet Explorer. […] But contrary to popular belief, they aren't the only games in town. While the two combatants offer great interfaces and features, there is something to be said for taking the road less traveled.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "1999 December 12, “Will the yen's surge do Japan in?”, in BusinessWeek, retrieved 2014-01-01",
"text": "When exports are the only game in town, currency gyrations can be a killer.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2007, Charles Taylor, “What is Secularity?”, in Kevin [Jon] Vanhoozer, Martin Warner, editors, Transcending Boundaries in Philosophy and Theology: Reason, Meaning and Experience (Transcending Boundaries in Philosophy and Theology), Aldershot, Hampshire, Burlington, Vt.: Ashgate Publishing, page 69",
"text": "Once myth and error are dissipated, these are the only games in town. The empirical approach is the only valid way of acquiring knowledge, and this becomes evident as soon as we free ourselves from the thraldom of a false metaphysics.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2012 August 22, Andy Beckett, “Britannia Unchained: the rise of the new Tory right”, in The Guardian",
"text": "[…]the underlying message for Britons is relentless: raw capitalism is the only game in town, and you need to start working much harder.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2013 October 24, Adewale Maja-Pearce, “Nigeria's talking shop”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 2013-10-29",
"text": "Political power, after all, is the only game in town that ensures unfettered access to the nation's oil riches.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2022 July 25, Lord Maude, quotee, “Truss and Sunak trade blows in acrimonious first TV debate”, in The Guardian",
"text": "He said that the increasingly fractious tone of interventions from the campaign teams over the weekend had begun to appear like “a race over who can sound more rightwing, as if that’s the only game in town”.",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"The only opportunity, activity, or resource available."
],
"id": "en-only_game_in_town-en-noun-uQ2LjQmN",
"links": [
[
"the",
"the#English"
],
[
"opportunity",
"opportunity"
],
[
"activity",
"activity"
],
[
"resource",
"resource"
]
],
"qualifier": "almost always preceded by the",
"raw_glosses": [
"(idiomatic, almost always preceded by the) The only opportunity, activity, or resource available."
],
"tags": [
"idiomatic"
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"audio": "en-au-only game in town.ogg",
"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/a/a4/En-au-only_game_in_town.ogg/En-au-only_game_in_town.ogg.mp3",
"ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a4/En-au-only_game_in_town.ogg",
"tags": [
"Australia"
],
"text": "Audio (AU)"
}
],
"word": "only game in town"
}
{
"etymology_text": "An allusion to a gambling venue.",
"forms": [
{
"form": "only games in town",
"tags": [
"plural"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "only games in town"
},
"expansion": "only game in town (plural only games in town)",
"name": "en-noun"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "noun",
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
"English countable nouns",
"English entries with incorrect language header",
"English idioms",
"English lemmas",
"English multiword terms",
"English nouns",
"English terms with audio links",
"English terms with quotations",
"Undetermined quotations with omitted translation",
"Undetermined terms with quotations"
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1973, Stanley Elkin, Searches & Seizures: Three Novellas, Boston, Mass.: Nonpareil Books, David R. Godine, Publisher, page 265",
"text": "It was the first elected position he had ever held, his single incumbency and, he had to admit, his best prospect, the only game in town.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "1995 November 12, Adam Rogers, “Now for some Hotjava”, in Newsweek, retrieved 2014-01-01",
"text": "Java won't long be the only game in town. Microsoft already plans to publish a rival software, code-named Blackbird.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "1999 November, Rebecca Rohan, “Beyond the browser wars: Navigator and Explorer aren't the only games in town”, in Black Enterprise, volume 30, number 3, New York, N.Y.: Earl G. Graves Publishing, →ISSN, page 48",
"text": "If you surf the Web, chances are you're using some version of either Netscape Navigator or Microsoft Internet Explorer. […] But contrary to popular belief, they aren't the only games in town. While the two combatants offer great interfaces and features, there is something to be said for taking the road less traveled.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "1999 December 12, “Will the yen's surge do Japan in?”, in BusinessWeek, retrieved 2014-01-01",
"text": "When exports are the only game in town, currency gyrations can be a killer.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2007, Charles Taylor, “What is Secularity?”, in Kevin [Jon] Vanhoozer, Martin Warner, editors, Transcending Boundaries in Philosophy and Theology: Reason, Meaning and Experience (Transcending Boundaries in Philosophy and Theology), Aldershot, Hampshire, Burlington, Vt.: Ashgate Publishing, page 69",
"text": "Once myth and error are dissipated, these are the only games in town. The empirical approach is the only valid way of acquiring knowledge, and this becomes evident as soon as we free ourselves from the thraldom of a false metaphysics.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2012 August 22, Andy Beckett, “Britannia Unchained: the rise of the new Tory right”, in The Guardian",
"text": "[…]the underlying message for Britons is relentless: raw capitalism is the only game in town, and you need to start working much harder.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2013 October 24, Adewale Maja-Pearce, “Nigeria's talking shop”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 2013-10-29",
"text": "Political power, after all, is the only game in town that ensures unfettered access to the nation's oil riches.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2022 July 25, Lord Maude, quotee, “Truss and Sunak trade blows in acrimonious first TV debate”, in The Guardian",
"text": "He said that the increasingly fractious tone of interventions from the campaign teams over the weekend had begun to appear like “a race over who can sound more rightwing, as if that’s the only game in town”.",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"The only opportunity, activity, or resource available."
],
"links": [
[
"the",
"the#English"
],
[
"opportunity",
"opportunity"
],
[
"activity",
"activity"
],
[
"resource",
"resource"
]
],
"qualifier": "almost always preceded by the",
"raw_glosses": [
"(idiomatic, almost always preceded by the) The only opportunity, activity, or resource available."
],
"tags": [
"idiomatic"
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"audio": "en-au-only game in town.ogg",
"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/a/a4/En-au-only_game_in_town.ogg/En-au-only_game_in_town.ogg.mp3",
"ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a4/En-au-only_game_in_town.ogg",
"tags": [
"Australia"
],
"text": "Audio (AU)"
}
],
"word": "only game in town"
}
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.
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