"pave the cowpath" meaning in English

See pave the cowpath in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Verb

Forms: paves the cowpath [present, singular, third-person], paving the cowpath [participle, present], paved the cowpath [participle, past], paved the cowpath [past]
Etymology: Reflecting the theme that some paved roads of the 20th and 21st centuries were developed over existing rights of way such as earlier cowpaths and footpaths; see also Wikipedia at desire path. Head templates: {{en-verb|*}} pave the cowpath (third-person singular simple present paves the cowpath, present participle paving the cowpath, simple past and past participle paved the cowpath)
  1. (figurative) To formalize an existing de-facto practice. Tags: figuratively Related terms: desire path
    Sense id: en-pave_the_cowpath-en-verb-gGu9amMy Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries
{
  "etymology_text": "Reflecting the theme that some paved roads of the 20th and 21st centuries were developed over existing rights of way such as earlier cowpaths and footpaths; see also Wikipedia at desire path.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "paves the cowpath",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "paving the cowpath",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "paved the cowpath",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "paved the cowpath",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "*"
      },
      "expansion": "pave the cowpath (third-person singular simple present paves the cowpath, present participle paving the cowpath, simple past and past participle paved the cowpath)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To formalize an existing de-facto practice."
      ],
      "id": "en-pave_the_cowpath-en-verb-gGu9amMy",
      "links": [
        [
          "formalize",
          "formalize"
        ],
        [
          "de-facto",
          "de facto"
        ],
        [
          "practice",
          "practice"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(figurative) To formalize an existing de-facto practice."
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "word": "desire path"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "figuratively"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "pave the cowpath"
}
{
  "etymology_text": "Reflecting the theme that some paved roads of the 20th and 21st centuries were developed over existing rights of way such as earlier cowpaths and footpaths; see also Wikipedia at desire path.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "paves the cowpath",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "paving the cowpath",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "paved the cowpath",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "paved the cowpath",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "*"
      },
      "expansion": "pave the cowpath (third-person singular simple present paves the cowpath, present participle paving the cowpath, simple past and past participle paved the cowpath)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "desire path"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English verbs",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To formalize an existing de-facto practice."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "formalize",
          "formalize"
        ],
        [
          "de-facto",
          "de facto"
        ],
        [
          "practice",
          "practice"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(figurative) To formalize an existing de-facto practice."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "figuratively"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "pave the cowpath"
}

Download raw JSONL data for pave the cowpath meaning in English (1.3kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-11-28 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-11-21 using wiktextract (65a6e81 and 0dbea76). 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.