"roll of the dice" meaning in English

See roll of the dice in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Forms: rolls of the dice [plural]
Etymology: Referring to the use of dice in gambling games. Compare the verb roll the dice. Head templates: {{en-noun|rolls of the dice}} roll of the dice (plural rolls of the dice)
  1. (idiomatic) A risky or uncertain attempt to do something, especially in an unfavourable situation. Tags: idiomatic Synonyms: throw of the dice Related terms: last cast
    Sense id: en-roll_of_the_dice-en-noun-DF64~fYG Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries

Inflected forms

{
  "etymology_text": "Referring to the use of dice in gambling games. Compare the verb roll the dice.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "rolls of the dice",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "rolls of the dice"
      },
      "expansion": "roll of the dice (plural rolls of the dice)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "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": [
        "A risky or uncertain attempt to do something, especially in an unfavourable situation."
      ],
      "id": "en-roll_of_the_dice-en-noun-DF64~fYG",
      "links": [
        [
          "risky",
          "risky"
        ],
        [
          "uncertain",
          "uncertain"
        ],
        [
          "attempt",
          "attempt"
        ],
        [
          "unfavourable",
          "unfavourable"
        ],
        [
          "situation",
          "situation"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) A risky or uncertain attempt to do something, especially in an unfavourable situation."
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "word": "last cast"
        }
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "throw of the dice"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "roll of the dice"
}

{
  "etymology_text": "Referring to the use of dice in gambling games. Compare the verb roll the dice.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "rolls of the dice",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "rolls of the dice"
      },
      "expansion": "roll of the dice (plural rolls of the dice)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "last cast"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English countable nouns",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English idioms",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English nouns",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A risky or uncertain attempt to do something, especially in an unfavourable situation."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "risky",
          "risky"
        ],
        [
          "uncertain",
          "uncertain"
        ],
        [
          "attempt",
          "attempt"
        ],
        [
          "unfavourable",
          "unfavourable"
        ],
        [
          "situation",
          "situation"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) A risky or uncertain attempt to do something, especially in an unfavourable situation."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "throw of the dice"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "roll of the dice"
}

Download raw JSONL data for roll of the dice meaning in English (1.1kB)

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-03-18 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-03-02 using wiktextract (f2d86ce and 633533e). 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.