"push the envelope" meaning in English

{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "push",
        "t": "to continually exert oneself in order to achieve a goal"
      },
      "expansion": "push (“to continually exert oneself in order to achieve a goal”)",
      "name": "m"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "the"
      },
      "expansion": "the",
      "name": "m"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "envelope",
        "t": "set of limitations within which a technological system can perform safely and effectively"
      },
      "expansion": "envelope (“set of limitations within which a technological system can perform safely and effectively”)",
      "name": "m"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "flight envelope"
      },
      "expansion": "flight envelope",
      "name": "m"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From push (“to continually exert oneself in order to achieve a goal”) + the + envelope (“set of limitations within which a technological system can perform safely and effectively”) (compare flight envelope), referring to the boundary line on a graph of an aircraft’s capabilities, especially those of altitude and speed. The term was popularized by the book The Right Stuff (1979) by the American author and journalist Tom Wolfe (1930–2018) about the pilots engaged in United States postwar research with experimental rocket-powered, high-speed aircraft, and the first Project Mercury astronauts selected for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s human spaceflight program.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "pushes the envelope",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "pushing the envelope",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "pushed the envelope",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "pushed the envelope",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "*"
      },
      "expansion": "push the envelope (third-person singular simple present pushes the envelope, present participle pushing the envelope, simple past and past participle pushed the envelope)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "hyphenation": [
    "push"
  ],
  "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"
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          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Aeronautics",
          "orig": "en:Aeronautics",
          "parents": [
            "Sciences",
            "All topics",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "They pushed the envelope on pricing derivatives.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1992, Popular Mechanics, volume 169, number 11, page 18",
          "text": "Aerial photography was coming into its own, and flying shutterbugs pushed the envelope, striving to outsnap each other.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2007 November 29, Ross Douthat, “Pushing the Envelope”, in The Atlantic",
          "text": "This is basically why I’ve enjoyed the rise of Huckabee and Paul: Not because I agree with them on an issue-by-issue basis, but because they’re willing to push the envelope a bit, and expand the definition of what a conservative can stand for in ways that I think are ultimately healthy for the party.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2013 July 11, Adam Pasick, “In Rapidly Aging Japan, Adult Diaper Sales Are About to Surpass Baby Diapers”, in The Atlantic",
          "text": "Marketing to consumers can still be a minefield […] but diaper manufacturers—confident that the embarrassment factor can be overcome—are determined to push the envelope.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2024 April 3, Richard Foster, “Training the next generation of engineers”, in RAIL, number 1006, page 51",
          "text": "\"You've got to keep pushing the envelope in terms of what else you can do,\" he says. \"It's all about trying - to use that horrible management phrase - to 'sweat the asset'.\"",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To go beyond established limits; to pioneer."
      ],
      "id": "en-push_the_envelope-en-verb-SBy18mNu",
      "links": [
        [
          "aeronautics",
          "aeronautics"
        ],
        [
          "go",
          "go#Verb"
        ],
        [
          "beyond",
          "beyond#Preposition"
        ],
        [
          "established",
          "established#Adjective"
        ],
        [
          "limits",
          "limit#Noun"
        ],
        [
          "pioneer",
          "pioneer#Verb"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(intransitive, idiomatic, originally aeronautics) To go beyond established limits; to pioneer."
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "word": "raise the bar"
        }
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "push the edge of the envelope"
        },
        {
          "word": "stretch the envelope"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic",
        "intransitive"
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "to go beyond established limits — see also pioneer",
          "word": "koetella rajoja"
        },
        {
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "to go beyond established limits — see also pioneer",
          "word": "rikkoa rajoja"
        },
        {
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "sense": "to go beyond established limits — see also pioneer",
          "word": "dépasser les bornes"
        },
        {
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "sense": "to go beyond established limits — see also pioneer",
          "word": "bis an die Grenze gehen"
        },
        {
          "code": "ga",
          "lang": "Irish",
          "sense": "to go beyond established limits — see also pioneer",
          "word": "iomairí nua a threabhadh"
        },
        {
          "code": "pl",
          "lang": "Polish",
          "sense": "to go beyond established limits — see also pioneer",
          "tags": [
            "imperfective"
          ],
          "word": "jechać po bandzie"
        },
        {
          "code": "sv",
          "lang": "Swedish",
          "sense": "to go beyond established limits — see also pioneer",
          "word": "tänja på gränserna"
        }
      ],
      "wikipedia": [
        "Project Mercury",
        "Tom Wolfe"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ˌpʊʃ ðiː ˈɛnvələʊp/",
      "tags": [
        "Received-Pronunciation"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/-ˈɒnv(ə)ləʊp/",
      "tags": [
        "Received-Pronunciation"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/ˌpʊʃ ði ˈɛnvəˌloʊp/",
      "tags": [
        "General-American"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/-ˈɑn-/",
      "tags": [
        "General-American"
      ]
    },
    {
      "audio": "En-au-push the envelope.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/1/1e/En-au-push_the_envelope.ogg/En-au-push_the_envelope.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1e/En-au-push_the_envelope.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "word": "push the envelope"
}

{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "push",
        "t": "to continually exert oneself in order to achieve a goal"
      },
      "expansion": "push (“to continually exert oneself in order to achieve a goal”)",
      "name": "m"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "the"
      },
      "expansion": "the",
      "name": "m"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "envelope",
        "t": "set of limitations within which a technological system can perform safely and effectively"
      },
      "expansion": "envelope (“set of limitations within which a technological system can perform safely and effectively”)",
      "name": "m"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "flight envelope"
      },
      "expansion": "flight envelope",
      "name": "m"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From push (“to continually exert oneself in order to achieve a goal”) + the + envelope (“set of limitations within which a technological system can perform safely and effectively”) (compare flight envelope), referring to the boundary line on a graph of an aircraft’s capabilities, especially those of altitude and speed. The term was popularized by the book The Right Stuff (1979) by the American author and journalist Tom Wolfe (1930–2018) about the pilots engaged in United States postwar research with experimental rocket-powered, high-speed aircraft, and the first Project Mercury astronauts selected for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s human spaceflight program.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "pushes the envelope",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "pushing the envelope",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "pushed the envelope",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "pushed the envelope",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "*"
      },
      "expansion": "push the envelope (third-person singular simple present pushes the envelope, present participle pushing the envelope, simple past and past participle pushed the envelope)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "hyphenation": [
    "push"
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "raise the bar"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English idioms",
        "English intransitive verbs",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English terms with IPA pronunciation",
        "English terms with audio links",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English terms with usage examples",
        "English verbs",
        "en:Aeronautics"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "They pushed the envelope on pricing derivatives.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1992, Popular Mechanics, volume 169, number 11, page 18",
          "text": "Aerial photography was coming into its own, and flying shutterbugs pushed the envelope, striving to outsnap each other.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2007 November 29, Ross Douthat, “Pushing the Envelope”, in The Atlantic",
          "text": "This is basically why I’ve enjoyed the rise of Huckabee and Paul: Not because I agree with them on an issue-by-issue basis, but because they’re willing to push the envelope a bit, and expand the definition of what a conservative can stand for in ways that I think are ultimately healthy for the party.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2013 July 11, Adam Pasick, “In Rapidly Aging Japan, Adult Diaper Sales Are About to Surpass Baby Diapers”, in The Atlantic",
          "text": "Marketing to consumers can still be a minefield […] but diaper manufacturers—confident that the embarrassment factor can be overcome—are determined to push the envelope.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2024 April 3, Richard Foster, “Training the next generation of engineers”, in RAIL, number 1006, page 51",
          "text": "\"You've got to keep pushing the envelope in terms of what else you can do,\" he says. \"It's all about trying - to use that horrible management phrase - to 'sweat the asset'.\"",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To go beyond established limits; to pioneer."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "aeronautics",
          "aeronautics"
        ],
        [
          "go",
          "go#Verb"
        ],
        [
          "beyond",
          "beyond#Preposition"
        ],
        [
          "established",
          "established#Adjective"
        ],
        [
          "limits",
          "limit#Noun"
        ],
        [
          "pioneer",
          "pioneer#Verb"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(intransitive, idiomatic, originally aeronautics) To go beyond established limits; to pioneer."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "push the edge of the envelope"
        },
        {
          "word": "stretch the envelope"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic",
        "intransitive"
      ],
      "wikipedia": [
        "Project Mercury",
        "Tom Wolfe"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ˌpʊʃ ðiː ˈɛnvələʊp/",
      "tags": [
        "Received-Pronunciation"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/-ˈɒnv(ə)ləʊp/",
      "tags": [
        "Received-Pronunciation"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/ˌpʊʃ ði ˈɛnvəˌloʊp/",
      "tags": [
        "General-American"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/-ˈɑn-/",
      "tags": [
        "General-American"
      ]
    },
    {
      "audio": "En-au-push the envelope.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/1/1e/En-au-push_the_envelope.ogg/En-au-push_the_envelope.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1e/En-au-push_the_envelope.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "to go beyond established limits — see also pioneer",
      "word": "koetella rajoja"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "to go beyond established limits — see also pioneer",
      "word": "rikkoa rajoja"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "to go beyond established limits — see also pioneer",
      "word": "dépasser les bornes"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "to go beyond established limits — see also pioneer",
      "word": "bis an die Grenze gehen"
    },
    {
      "code": "ga",
      "lang": "Irish",
      "sense": "to go beyond established limits — see also pioneer",
      "word": "iomairí nua a threabhadh"
    },
    {
      "code": "pl",
      "lang": "Polish",
      "sense": "to go beyond established limits — see also pioneer",
      "tags": [
        "imperfective"
      ],
      "word": "jechać po bandzie"
    },
    {
      "code": "sv",
      "lang": "Swedish",
      "sense": "to go beyond established limits — see also pioneer",
      "word": "tänja på gränserna"
    }
  ],
  "word": "push the envelope"
}