"run something up the flagpole" meaning in English

See run something up the flagpole in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Verb

Audio: En-au-run something up the flagpole.ogg [Australia] Forms: runs something up the flagpole [present, singular, third-person], running something up the flagpole [participle, present], ran something up the flagpole [past], run something up the flagpole [participle, past]
Etymology: Short form of run it up the flagpole, to see who salutes. Etymology templates: {{m|en|run it up the flagpole, to see who salutes}} run it up the flagpole, to see who salutes Head templates: {{en-verb|run<,,ran,run> something up the flagpole}} run something up the flagpole (third-person singular simple present runs something up the flagpole, present participle running something up the flagpole, simple past ran something up the flagpole, past participle run something up the flagpole)
  1. (transitive, idiomatic) To propose an idea or make a suggestion in order to learn the reaction of others to it. Tags: idiomatic, transitive Synonyms: float
    Sense id: en-run_something_up_the_flagpole-en-verb-N7dUlF6e Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header

Inflected forms

Download JSON data for run something up the flagpole meaning in English (2.1kB)

{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "run it up the flagpole, to see who salutes"
      },
      "expansion": "run it up the flagpole, to see who salutes",
      "name": "m"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "Short form of run it up the flagpole, to see who salutes.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "runs something up the flagpole",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "running something up the flagpole",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "ran something up the flagpole",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "run something up the flagpole",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "run<,,ran,run> something up the flagpole"
      },
      "expansion": "run something up the flagpole (third-person singular simple present runs something up the flagpole, present participle running something up the flagpole, simple past ran something up the flagpole, past participle run something up the flagpole)",
      "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"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "The idea might not be so bad; why don't you run it up the flagpole at the next board meeting?"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To propose an idea or make a suggestion in order to learn the reaction of others to it."
      ],
      "id": "en-run_something_up_the_flagpole-en-verb-N7dUlF6e",
      "links": [
        [
          "propose",
          "propose"
        ],
        [
          "suggestion",
          "suggestion"
        ],
        [
          "reaction",
          "reaction"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(transitive, idiomatic) To propose an idea or make a suggestion in order to learn the reaction of others to it."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "float"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic",
        "transitive"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "En-au-run something up the flagpole.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/f/f8/En-au-run_something_up_the_flagpole.ogg/En-au-run_something_up_the_flagpole.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f8/En-au-run_something_up_the_flagpole.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "word": "run something up the flagpole"
}
{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "run it up the flagpole, to see who salutes"
      },
      "expansion": "run it up the flagpole, to see who salutes",
      "name": "m"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "Short form of run it up the flagpole, to see who salutes.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "runs something up the flagpole",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "running something up the flagpole",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "ran something up the flagpole",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "run something up the flagpole",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "run<,,ran,run> something up the flagpole"
      },
      "expansion": "run something up the flagpole (third-person singular simple present runs something up the flagpole, present participle running something up the flagpole, simple past ran something up the flagpole, past participle run something up the flagpole)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English idioms",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English terms with audio links",
        "English transitive verbs",
        "English verbs"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "The idea might not be so bad; why don't you run it up the flagpole at the next board meeting?"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To propose an idea or make a suggestion in order to learn the reaction of others to it."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "propose",
          "propose"
        ],
        [
          "suggestion",
          "suggestion"
        ],
        [
          "reaction",
          "reaction"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(transitive, idiomatic) To propose an idea or make a suggestion in order to learn the reaction of others to it."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "float"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic",
        "transitive"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "En-au-run something up the flagpole.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/f/f8/En-au-run_something_up_the_flagpole.ogg/En-au-run_something_up_the_flagpole.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f8/En-au-run_something_up_the_flagpole.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "word": "run something up the flagpole"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-06 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-05-02 using wiktextract (f4fd8c9 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.