See organ grinder in All languages combined, or Wiktionary
{
"derived": [
{
"_dis1": "54 46",
"word": "the organ grinder, not the monkey"
}
],
"etymology_text": "From the repetitive grinding involved in playing a barrel organ. In figurative senses, from the common 19th-century practice of training monkeys to dance to an organ grinder's music in order to perform on the street and solicit donations and spare change.",
"forms": [
{
"form": "organ grinders",
"tags": [
"plural"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {},
"expansion": "organ grinder (plural organ grinders)",
"name": "en-noun"
}
],
"hyphenation": [
"or‧gan"
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "noun",
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
{
"_dis": "45 55",
"kind": "other",
"name": "Entries with translation boxes",
"parents": [],
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}
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"examples": [
{
"ref": "1903 October, Jack London, chapter XXIII, in The People of the Abyss, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:",
"text": "There is one beautiful sight in the East End, and only one, and it is the children dancing in the street when the organ-grinder goes his round.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "1903–1906, O. Henry [pseudonym; William Sydney Porter], “The Easter of the Soul”, in The Voice of the City, complete edition, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Doran & Company, published 1908, →OCLC, page 141:",
"text": "The organ-grinders were at work; but they were always precocious harbingers. It was near enough spring for them to go penny-hunting when the skating ball dropped at the park.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "1915, W[illiam] Somerset Maugham, chapter LXXXVI, in Of Human Bondage, New York, N.Y.: George H[enry] Doran Company, →OCLC:",
"text": "“You should read Spanish,” he said. “It is a noble tongue. It has not the mellifluousness of Italian, Italian is the language of tenors and organ-grinders, but it has grandeur: it does not ripple like a brook in a garden, but it surges tumultuous like a mighty river in flood.”",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "1919 October 20, Virginia Woolf, Night and Day, London: Duckworth and Company […], →OCLC:",
"text": "Thus the vision of humanity appeared to be in some way connected with Bloomsbury, and faded distinctly by the time she crossed the main road; then a belated organ-grinder in Holborn set her thoughts dancing incongruously; […]",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "1929, George Orwell, “Beggars in London”, in An Inquiry into “Civic Progress” in England:",
"text": "Those who cannot play any instrument wheel a gramophone through the streets on a barrow, but the largest number of these street musicians are organ grinders.",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"The player of a barrel organ."
],
"id": "en-organ_grinder-en-noun-MAKJIHl5",
"links": [
[
"player",
"player"
],
[
"barrel organ",
"barrel organ"
]
],
"synonyms": [
{
"word": "barrel organist"
}
],
"translations": [
{
"_dis1": "100 0",
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"sense": "player of a barrel organ",
"word": "posetiivari"
},
{
"_dis1": "100 0",
"code": "hu",
"lang": "Hungarian",
"sense": "player of a barrel organ",
"word": "kintornás"
},
{
"_dis1": "100 0",
"code": "ru",
"lang": "Russian",
"roman": "šarmánščik",
"sense": "player of a barrel organ",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "шарма́нщик"
}
]
},
{
"categories": [
{
"_dis": "31 69",
"kind": "other",
"name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
"parents": [
"Entries with incorrect language header",
"Entry maintenance"
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"source": "w+disamb"
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{
"_dis": "45 55",
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{
"_dis": "28 72",
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{
"_dis": "26 74",
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"parents": [],
"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "25 75",
"kind": "other",
"name": "Terms with Finnish translations",
"parents": [],
"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "20 80",
"kind": "other",
"name": "Terms with Hungarian translations",
"parents": [],
"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "32 68",
"kind": "other",
"name": "Terms with Russian translations",
"parents": [],
"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "13 87",
"kind": "topical",
"langcode": "en",
"name": "Musicians",
"orig": "en:Musicians",
"parents": [
"Music",
"Occupations",
"Art",
"Sound",
"People",
"Work",
"Culture",
"Energy",
"Human",
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"All topics",
"Human behaviour",
"Fundamental"
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"source": "w+disamb"
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{
"_dis": "1 99",
"kind": "topical",
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"name": "People",
"orig": "en:People",
"parents": [
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"All topics",
"Fundamental"
],
"source": "w+disamb"
}
],
"examples": [
{
"text": "I want to speak to the organ grinder, not the monkey.",
"type": "example"
}
],
"glosses": [
"The person who is in charge, rather than a lackey or representative; the person truly responsible for another's actions."
],
"id": "en-organ_grinder-en-noun-5gWMiR9t",
"links": [
[
"person",
"person#Noun"
],
[
"in charge",
"in charge"
],
[
"lackey",
"lackey"
],
[
"representative",
"representative#Noun"
],
[
"truly",
"truly"
],
[
"responsible",
"responsible"
],
[
"actions",
"action#Noun"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(figurative) The person who is in charge, rather than a lackey or representative; the person truly responsible for another's actions."
],
"synonyms": [
{
"word": "the organ grinder, not the monkey"
}
],
"tags": [
"figuratively"
],
"translations": [
{
"_dis1": "1 99",
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"sense": "person who is in charge, rather than a lackey or representative",
"word": "pomo"
}
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"ipa": "/ˈɔːɡən ˌɡɹaɪndə/",
"tags": [
"Received-Pronunciation"
]
},
{
"ipa": "/ˈɔɹɡən ˌɡɹaɪndəɹ/",
"tags": [
"General-American"
]
},
{
"audio": "En-us-organ grinder.oga",
"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/9/99/En-us-organ_grinder.oga/En-us-organ_grinder.oga.mp3",
"ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/99/En-us-organ_grinder.oga"
}
],
"synonyms": [
{
"_dis1": "54 46",
"word": "organ-grinder"
}
],
"word": "organ grinder"
}
{
"categories": [
"English countable nouns",
"English entries with incorrect language header",
"English lemmas",
"English multiword terms",
"English nouns",
"Entries with translation boxes",
"Pages with 1 entry",
"Pages with entries",
"Terms with Finnish translations",
"Terms with Hungarian translations",
"Terms with Russian translations",
"en:Musicians",
"en:People"
],
"derived": [
{
"word": "the organ grinder, not the monkey"
}
],
"etymology_text": "From the repetitive grinding involved in playing a barrel organ. In figurative senses, from the common 19th-century practice of training monkeys to dance to an organ grinder's music in order to perform on the street and solicit donations and spare change.",
"forms": [
{
"form": "organ grinders",
"tags": [
"plural"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {},
"expansion": "organ grinder (plural organ grinders)",
"name": "en-noun"
}
],
"hyphenation": [
"or‧gan"
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "noun",
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
"English terms with quotations"
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1903 October, Jack London, chapter XXIII, in The People of the Abyss, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:",
"text": "There is one beautiful sight in the East End, and only one, and it is the children dancing in the street when the organ-grinder goes his round.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "1903–1906, O. Henry [pseudonym; William Sydney Porter], “The Easter of the Soul”, in The Voice of the City, complete edition, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Doran & Company, published 1908, →OCLC, page 141:",
"text": "The organ-grinders were at work; but they were always precocious harbingers. It was near enough spring for them to go penny-hunting when the skating ball dropped at the park.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "1915, W[illiam] Somerset Maugham, chapter LXXXVI, in Of Human Bondage, New York, N.Y.: George H[enry] Doran Company, →OCLC:",
"text": "“You should read Spanish,” he said. “It is a noble tongue. It has not the mellifluousness of Italian, Italian is the language of tenors and organ-grinders, but it has grandeur: it does not ripple like a brook in a garden, but it surges tumultuous like a mighty river in flood.”",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "1919 October 20, Virginia Woolf, Night and Day, London: Duckworth and Company […], →OCLC:",
"text": "Thus the vision of humanity appeared to be in some way connected with Bloomsbury, and faded distinctly by the time she crossed the main road; then a belated organ-grinder in Holborn set her thoughts dancing incongruously; […]",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "1929, George Orwell, “Beggars in London”, in An Inquiry into “Civic Progress” in England:",
"text": "Those who cannot play any instrument wheel a gramophone through the streets on a barrow, but the largest number of these street musicians are organ grinders.",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"The player of a barrel organ."
],
"links": [
[
"player",
"player"
],
[
"barrel organ",
"barrel organ"
]
],
"synonyms": [
{
"word": "barrel organist"
}
]
},
{
"categories": [
"English terms with usage examples"
],
"examples": [
{
"text": "I want to speak to the organ grinder, not the monkey.",
"type": "example"
}
],
"glosses": [
"The person who is in charge, rather than a lackey or representative; the person truly responsible for another's actions."
],
"links": [
[
"person",
"person#Noun"
],
[
"in charge",
"in charge"
],
[
"lackey",
"lackey"
],
[
"representative",
"representative#Noun"
],
[
"truly",
"truly"
],
[
"responsible",
"responsible"
],
[
"actions",
"action#Noun"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(figurative) The person who is in charge, rather than a lackey or representative; the person truly responsible for another's actions."
],
"synonyms": [
{
"word": "the organ grinder, not the monkey"
}
],
"tags": [
"figuratively"
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"ipa": "/ˈɔːɡən ˌɡɹaɪndə/",
"tags": [
"Received-Pronunciation"
]
},
{
"ipa": "/ˈɔɹɡən ˌɡɹaɪndəɹ/",
"tags": [
"General-American"
]
},
{
"audio": "En-us-organ grinder.oga",
"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/9/99/En-us-organ_grinder.oga/En-us-organ_grinder.oga.mp3",
"ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/99/En-us-organ_grinder.oga"
}
],
"synonyms": [
{
"word": "organ-grinder"
}
],
"translations": [
{
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"sense": "player of a barrel organ",
"word": "posetiivari"
},
{
"code": "hu",
"lang": "Hungarian",
"sense": "player of a barrel organ",
"word": "kintornás"
},
{
"code": "ru",
"lang": "Russian",
"roman": "šarmánščik",
"sense": "player of a barrel organ",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "шарма́нщик"
},
{
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"sense": "person who is in charge, rather than a lackey or representative",
"word": "pomo"
}
],
"word": "organ grinder"
}
Download raw JSONL data for organ grinder meaning in English (4.7kB)
This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-12-15 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-12-04 using wiktextract (8a39820 and 4401a4c). 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.