See red ball in All languages combined, or Wiktionary
Download JSON data for red ball meaning in English (6.3kB)
{
"etymology_text": "* (\"high-profile high-priority\" sense) From a routing system on the Santa Fe Railroad in the early 1900s. Fast freight trains which were to receive priority routing were marked with placards depicting a red disc, and were called \"red ball\" trains.",
"forms": [
{
"form": "red balls",
"tags": [
"plural"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {},
"expansion": "red ball (plural red balls)",
"name": "en-noun"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "noun",
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "American English",
"parents": [],
"source": "w"
},
{
"kind": "topical",
"langcode": "en",
"name": "Law enforcement",
"orig": "en:Law enforcement",
"parents": [
"Crime prevention",
"Emergency services",
"Law",
"Crime",
"Public safety",
"Justice",
"Criminal law",
"Society",
"Public administration",
"Security",
"All topics",
"Government",
"Fundamental",
"Politics"
],
"source": "w"
}
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1991, David Simon, Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, →OL",
"text": "A police-involved shooting is by definition a red ball and, by definition, a red ball requires every warm body.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2005, Eileen Dreyer, Sinners and Saints, St. Martin's Press, →OL",
"text": "The only exception to that edict was the Eighth, the French Quarter district, since any homicide at the core of the tourist area was such a potential red ball.",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"A high-profile high-priority case which draws political or media attention."
],
"id": "en-red_ball-en-noun-FZLgWl-V",
"links": [
[
"law enforcement",
"law enforcement"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(law enforcement, slang, US) A high-profile high-priority case which draws political or media attention."
],
"tags": [
"US",
"slang"
],
"topics": [
"government",
"law-enforcement"
]
},
{
"categories": [
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "English metonyms",
"parents": [],
"source": "w"
},
{
"kind": "topical",
"langcode": "en",
"name": "Cricket",
"orig": "en:Cricket",
"parents": [
"Ball games",
"Sports",
"Human activity",
"Human behaviour",
"Human",
"All topics",
"Fundamental"
],
"source": "w"
},
{
"kind": "topical",
"langcode": "en",
"name": "Mass media",
"orig": "en:Mass media",
"parents": [
"Culture",
"Media",
"Society",
"Communication",
"All topics",
"Fundamental"
],
"source": "w"
},
{
"_dis": "12 22 56 10",
"kind": "other",
"name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
"parents": [
"Entries with incorrect language header",
"Entry maintenance"
],
"source": "w+disamb"
}
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "2017 January 28, Jonathan Liew, “To cling together or drift apart? Red and white-ball cricket facing a divided future”, in The Daily Telegraph, London",
"text": "Or are the red-ball and white-ball games diverging to the extent that it is possible to envisage a future where they are, to all intents and purposes, different sports?",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"first-class cricket, as distinct from limited overs cricket (or \"white ball\")"
],
"id": "en-red_ball-en-noun-TDZs7~jE",
"links": [
[
"cricket",
"cricket"
],
[
"journalism",
"journalism"
],
[
"first-class",
"first class match"
],
[
"limited overs cricket",
"limited overs cricket"
],
[
"white ball",
"white ball"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(cricket, journalism, metonymically, uncountable) first-class cricket, as distinct from limited overs cricket (or \"white ball\")"
],
"tags": [
"metonymically",
"uncountable"
],
"topics": [
"ball-games",
"cricket",
"games",
"hobbies",
"journalism",
"lifestyle",
"media",
"sports"
]
},
{
"glosses": [
"Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see red, ball."
],
"id": "en-red_ball-en-noun-qOWTPj-2",
"links": [
[
"red",
"red#English"
],
[
"ball",
"ball#English"
]
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"audio": "En-au-red ball.ogg",
"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/6/66/En-au-red_ball.ogg/En-au-red_ball.ogg.mp3",
"ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/66/En-au-red_ball.ogg",
"tags": [
"Australia"
],
"text": "Audio (AU)"
}
],
"wikipedia": [
"red ball"
],
"word": "red ball"
}
{
"etymology_text": "* (\"high-profile high-priority\" sense) From a routing system on the Santa Fe Railroad in the early 1900s. Fast freight trains which were to receive priority routing were marked with placards depicting a red disc, and were called \"red ball\" trains.",
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "-"
},
"expansion": "red ball (not comparable)",
"name": "en-adj"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "adj",
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
{
"kind": "topical",
"langcode": "en",
"name": "Rail transportation",
"orig": "en:Rail transportation",
"parents": [
"Transport",
"All topics",
"Fundamental"
],
"source": "w"
}
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1905 August 18, “The Frisco System of Handling Time Freight”, in The Railroad Gazette, volume 39, number 7, page 158",
"text": "Perishable freight, carloads of package freight or merchandise, oils, etc., are designated as Red Ball freight.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "1910 August, Chalmers L. Pancoast, “Red Ball System of Handling Freight”, in Santa Fe Employes' Magazine, volume 4, number 9, page 28",
"text": "A special red ball card, which is a familar sight to every employe—the large red ball on the white card—is attached to every car of red ball freight, one on each side, by the agent at the red ball billing station. A special red ball envelope accompanies each car to its destination.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "1939 November, “Keeping the Iron Horse on Time”, in Popular Mechanics, volume 72, number 5, →ISSN, page 157A",
"text": "The crack passenger trains average fifty-four miles an hour over that stretch, the \"red ball\" freights average twenty-seven, and the way freights eighteen miles an hour.",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"Of or related to priority freight or the trains that carry it."
],
"id": "en-red_ball-en-adj-nj84nZjq",
"links": [
[
"rail transport",
"rail transport"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(rail transport) Of or related to priority freight or the trains that carry it."
],
"tags": [
"not-comparable"
],
"topics": [
"rail-transport",
"railways",
"transport"
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"audio": "En-au-red ball.ogg",
"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/6/66/En-au-red_ball.ogg/En-au-red_ball.ogg.mp3",
"ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/66/En-au-red_ball.ogg",
"tags": [
"Australia"
],
"text": "Audio (AU)"
}
],
"wikipedia": [
"red ball"
],
"word": "red ball"
}
{
"categories": [
"English adjectives",
"English countable nouns",
"English entries with incorrect language header",
"English lemmas",
"English multiword terms",
"English nouns",
"English terms with audio links",
"English uncomparable adjectives"
],
"etymology_text": "* (\"high-profile high-priority\" sense) From a routing system on the Santa Fe Railroad in the early 1900s. Fast freight trains which were to receive priority routing were marked with placards depicting a red disc, and were called \"red ball\" trains.",
"forms": [
{
"form": "red balls",
"tags": [
"plural"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {},
"expansion": "red ball (plural red balls)",
"name": "en-noun"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "noun",
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
"American English",
"English slang",
"English terms with quotations",
"en:Law enforcement"
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1991, David Simon, Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, →OL",
"text": "A police-involved shooting is by definition a red ball and, by definition, a red ball requires every warm body.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2005, Eileen Dreyer, Sinners and Saints, St. Martin's Press, →OL",
"text": "The only exception to that edict was the Eighth, the French Quarter district, since any homicide at the core of the tourist area was such a potential red ball.",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"A high-profile high-priority case which draws political or media attention."
],
"links": [
[
"law enforcement",
"law enforcement"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(law enforcement, slang, US) A high-profile high-priority case which draws political or media attention."
],
"tags": [
"US",
"slang"
],
"topics": [
"government",
"law-enforcement"
]
},
{
"categories": [
"English metonyms",
"English terms with quotations",
"English uncountable nouns",
"en:Cricket",
"en:Mass media"
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "2017 January 28, Jonathan Liew, “To cling together or drift apart? Red and white-ball cricket facing a divided future”, in The Daily Telegraph, London",
"text": "Or are the red-ball and white-ball games diverging to the extent that it is possible to envisage a future where they are, to all intents and purposes, different sports?",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"first-class cricket, as distinct from limited overs cricket (or \"white ball\")"
],
"links": [
[
"cricket",
"cricket"
],
[
"journalism",
"journalism"
],
[
"first-class",
"first class match"
],
[
"limited overs cricket",
"limited overs cricket"
],
[
"white ball",
"white ball"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(cricket, journalism, metonymically, uncountable) first-class cricket, as distinct from limited overs cricket (or \"white ball\")"
],
"tags": [
"metonymically",
"uncountable"
],
"topics": [
"ball-games",
"cricket",
"games",
"hobbies",
"journalism",
"lifestyle",
"media",
"sports"
]
},
{
"glosses": [
"Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see red, ball."
],
"links": [
[
"red",
"red#English"
],
[
"ball",
"ball#English"
]
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"audio": "En-au-red ball.ogg",
"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/6/66/En-au-red_ball.ogg/En-au-red_ball.ogg.mp3",
"ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/66/En-au-red_ball.ogg",
"tags": [
"Australia"
],
"text": "Audio (AU)"
}
],
"wikipedia": [
"red ball"
],
"word": "red ball"
}
{
"categories": [
"English adjectives",
"English countable nouns",
"English entries with incorrect language header",
"English lemmas",
"English multiword terms",
"English nouns",
"English terms with audio links",
"English uncomparable adjectives"
],
"etymology_text": "* (\"high-profile high-priority\" sense) From a routing system on the Santa Fe Railroad in the early 1900s. Fast freight trains which were to receive priority routing were marked with placards depicting a red disc, and were called \"red ball\" trains.",
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "-"
},
"expansion": "red ball (not comparable)",
"name": "en-adj"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "adj",
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
"English terms with quotations",
"en:Rail transportation"
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1905 August 18, “The Frisco System of Handling Time Freight”, in The Railroad Gazette, volume 39, number 7, page 158",
"text": "Perishable freight, carloads of package freight or merchandise, oils, etc., are designated as Red Ball freight.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "1910 August, Chalmers L. Pancoast, “Red Ball System of Handling Freight”, in Santa Fe Employes' Magazine, volume 4, number 9, page 28",
"text": "A special red ball card, which is a familar sight to every employe—the large red ball on the white card—is attached to every car of red ball freight, one on each side, by the agent at the red ball billing station. A special red ball envelope accompanies each car to its destination.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "1939 November, “Keeping the Iron Horse on Time”, in Popular Mechanics, volume 72, number 5, →ISSN, page 157A",
"text": "The crack passenger trains average fifty-four miles an hour over that stretch, the \"red ball\" freights average twenty-seven, and the way freights eighteen miles an hour.",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"Of or related to priority freight or the trains that carry it."
],
"links": [
[
"rail transport",
"rail transport"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(rail transport) Of or related to priority freight or the trains that carry it."
],
"tags": [
"not-comparable"
],
"topics": [
"rail-transport",
"railways",
"transport"
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"audio": "En-au-red ball.ogg",
"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/6/66/En-au-red_ball.ogg/En-au-red_ball.ogg.mp3",
"ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/66/En-au-red_ball.ogg",
"tags": [
"Australia"
],
"text": "Audio (AU)"
}
],
"wikipedia": [
"red ball"
],
"word": "red ball"
}
This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-04-30 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-04-21 using wiktextract (210104c 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.
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.