See pushmi-pullyu in All languages combined, or Wiktionary
{ "etymology_text": "From Pushmi-pullyu, the name of a fictional animal with two heads at opposing ends of its body, along with very sharp horns on each side of the head, in Hugh Lofting's The Story of Doctor Dolittle.", "forms": [ { "form": "pushmi-pullyus", "tags": [ "plural" ] } ], "head_templates": [ { "args": {}, "expansion": "pushmi-pullyu (plural pushmi-pullyus)", "name": "en-noun" } ], "lang": "English", "lang_code": "en", "pos": "noun", "senses": [ { "categories": [], "examples": [ { "ref": "2015 April 21, Julie Burchill, “Meet the Cry-Bully: a hideous hybrid of victim and victor”, in The Spectator:", "text": "This is the age of the Cry-Bully, a hideous hybrid of victim and victor, weeper and walloper. They are everywhere, these duplicit Pushmi-Pullyus of the personal and the political", "type": "quote" } ], "glosses": [ "A person who behaves in a conflicting or contradictory manner." ], "id": "en-pushmi-pullyu-en-noun-IM20X-NO", "links": [ [ "conflicting", "conflicting" ], [ "contradictory", "contradictory" ] ] } ], "synonyms": [ { "_dis1": "0 0 0", "word": "pushme-pullyou" } ], "wikipedia": [ "pushmi-pullyu" ], "word": "pushmi-pullyu" } { "etymology_text": "From Pushmi-pullyu, the name of a fictional animal with two heads at opposing ends of its body, along with very sharp horns on each side of the head, in Hugh Lofting's The Story of Doctor Dolittle.", "head_templates": [ { "args": { "1": "-" }, "expansion": "pushmi-pullyu (not comparable)", "name": "en-adj" } ], "lang": "English", "lang_code": "en", "pos": "adj", "senses": [ { "categories": [], "examples": [ { "ref": "1998, B. J. Wylie, Enough: Lifestyle and Financial Planning for Simpler Living, Northstone Publishing:", "text": "It's one of the most characteristic behavior patterns of human beings, this pushmepullyou approach to life. We say one thing and do another […]", "type": "quote" }, { "ref": "2018 June 20, The Independent:", "text": "They don't want some sort of hopeless compromise, some perpetual pushme-pullyou arrangement in which we stay half-in and half-out in a political no man's land - with no more ministers round the table in Brussels and yet forced to obey EU laws.", "type": "quote" } ], "glosses": [ "Conflicting or contradictory." ], "id": "en-pushmi-pullyu-en-adj-Kl3a50vL", "links": [ [ "Conflicting", "conflicting" ], [ "contradictory", "contradictory" ] ], "tags": [ "not-comparable" ] }, { "categories": [ { "_dis": "6 55 39", "kind": "other", "name": "English entries with incorrect language header", "parents": [ "Entries with incorrect language header", "Entry maintenance" ], "source": "w+disamb" }, { "_dis": "10 57 33", "kind": "other", "name": "Pages with 1 entry", "parents": [], "source": "w+disamb" }, { "_dis": "5 63 32", "kind": "other", "name": "Pages with entries", "parents": [], "source": "w+disamb" } ], "examples": [ { "ref": "2004, R. G. Millikan, “On Reading Signs: Some Differences Between Us and Others”, in D.K. Oller, U. Griebel, editors, Evolution of Communication Systems, MIT Press, page 22:", "text": "What […] are the steps from […] the sort of inarticulate pushmi-pullyu comprehensions the bee has and the dim sort of pushmi-pullyu comprehension that mediates responses to behavior releasers, to articulate, well-differentiated, and uncommitted human beliefs and desires […]?", "type": "quote" } ], "glosses": [ "in teleosemantics, being a representation with both indicative and imperative content." ], "id": "en-pushmi-pullyu-en-adj-QkTmSRB2", "links": [ [ "teleosemantics", "teleosemantics" ] ], "tags": [ "not-comparable" ] } ], "synonyms": [ { "_dis1": "0 0 0", "word": "pushme-pullyou" } ], "word": "pushmi-pullyu" }
{ "categories": [ "English adjectives", "English countable nouns", "English entries with incorrect language header", "English lemmas", "English multiword terms", "English nouns", "English uncomparable adjectives", "Pages with 1 entry", "Pages with entries" ], "etymology_text": "From Pushmi-pullyu, the name of a fictional animal with two heads at opposing ends of its body, along with very sharp horns on each side of the head, in Hugh Lofting's The Story of Doctor Dolittle.", "forms": [ { "form": "pushmi-pullyus", "tags": [ "plural" ] } ], "head_templates": [ { "args": {}, "expansion": "pushmi-pullyu (plural pushmi-pullyus)", "name": "en-noun" } ], "lang": "English", "lang_code": "en", "pos": "noun", "senses": [ { "categories": [ "English terms with quotations" ], "examples": [ { "ref": "2015 April 21, Julie Burchill, “Meet the Cry-Bully: a hideous hybrid of victim and victor”, in The Spectator:", "text": "This is the age of the Cry-Bully, a hideous hybrid of victim and victor, weeper and walloper. They are everywhere, these duplicit Pushmi-Pullyus of the personal and the political", "type": "quote" } ], "glosses": [ "A person who behaves in a conflicting or contradictory manner." ], "links": [ [ "conflicting", "conflicting" ], [ "contradictory", "contradictory" ] ] } ], "synonyms": [ { "word": "pushme-pullyou" } ], "wikipedia": [ "pushmi-pullyu" ], "word": "pushmi-pullyu" } { "categories": [ "English adjectives", "English countable nouns", "English entries with incorrect language header", "English lemmas", "English multiword terms", "English nouns", "English uncomparable adjectives", "Pages with 1 entry", "Pages with entries" ], "etymology_text": "From Pushmi-pullyu, the name of a fictional animal with two heads at opposing ends of its body, along with very sharp horns on each side of the head, in Hugh Lofting's The Story of Doctor Dolittle.", "head_templates": [ { "args": { "1": "-" }, "expansion": "pushmi-pullyu (not comparable)", "name": "en-adj" } ], "lang": "English", "lang_code": "en", "pos": "adj", "senses": [ { "categories": [ "English terms with quotations", "Quotation templates to be cleaned" ], "examples": [ { "ref": "1998, B. J. Wylie, Enough: Lifestyle and Financial Planning for Simpler Living, Northstone Publishing:", "text": "It's one of the most characteristic behavior patterns of human beings, this pushmepullyou approach to life. We say one thing and do another […]", "type": "quote" }, { "ref": "2018 June 20, The Independent:", "text": "They don't want some sort of hopeless compromise, some perpetual pushme-pullyou arrangement in which we stay half-in and half-out in a political no man's land - with no more ministers round the table in Brussels and yet forced to obey EU laws.", "type": "quote" } ], "glosses": [ "Conflicting or contradictory." ], "links": [ [ "Conflicting", "conflicting" ], [ "contradictory", "contradictory" ] ], "tags": [ "not-comparable" ] }, { "categories": [ "English terms with quotations" ], "examples": [ { "ref": "2004, R. G. Millikan, “On Reading Signs: Some Differences Between Us and Others”, in D.K. Oller, U. Griebel, editors, Evolution of Communication Systems, MIT Press, page 22:", "text": "What […] are the steps from […] the sort of inarticulate pushmi-pullyu comprehensions the bee has and the dim sort of pushmi-pullyu comprehension that mediates responses to behavior releasers, to articulate, well-differentiated, and uncommitted human beliefs and desires […]?", "type": "quote" } ], "glosses": [ "in teleosemantics, being a representation with both indicative and imperative content." ], "links": [ [ "teleosemantics", "teleosemantics" ] ], "tags": [ "not-comparable" ] } ], "synonyms": [ { "word": "pushme-pullyou" } ], "word": "pushmi-pullyu" }
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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.
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