"sacred cow" meaning in English

See sacred cow in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Audio: En-au-sacred cow.ogg Forms: sacred cows [plural]
Head templates: {{en-noun}} sacred cow (plural sacred cows)
  1. (idiomatic) Something which cannot be tampered with, or criticized, for fear of public outcry. A person, institution, belief system, etc. which, for no reason other than the demands of established social etiquette or popular opinion, should be accorded respect or reverence, and not touched, handled or examined too closely. Tags: idiomatic Translations (something which cannot be tampered with): hellig ko (Danish), pyhä lehmä (Finnish), monstre sacré (French), vache sacrée [feminine] (French), פרה קדושה (para kdosha) [feminine] (Hebrew), szent tehén (Hungarian), święta krowa [feminine] (Polish), vaca sagrada [feminine] (Portuguese), свяще́нная коро́ва (svjaščénnaja koróva) [feminine] (Russian), vaca sagrada [feminine] (Spanish), helig ko [common-gender] (Swedish)
    Sense id: en-sacred_cow-en-noun-hnMq8aBr Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Entries with translation boxes, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries, Terms with Danish translations, Terms with Finnish translations, Terms with French translations, Terms with Hebrew translations, Terms with Hungarian translations, Terms with Polish translations, Terms with Portuguese translations, Terms with Russian translations, Terms with Spanish translations, Terms with Swedish translations Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 41 28 31 Disambiguation of Entries with translation boxes: 55 18 27 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 37 30 32 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 38 30 31 Disambiguation of Terms with Danish translations: 47 25 29 Disambiguation of Terms with Finnish translations: 42 28 30 Disambiguation of Terms with French translations: 45 25 30 Disambiguation of Terms with Hebrew translations: 32 33 35 Disambiguation of Terms with Hungarian translations: 45 26 29 Disambiguation of Terms with Polish translations: 41 28 31 Disambiguation of Terms with Portuguese translations: 44 27 30 Disambiguation of Terms with Russian translations: 50 24 27 Disambiguation of Terms with Spanish translations: 40 29 31 Disambiguation of Terms with Swedish translations: 36 31 33 Disambiguation of 'something which cannot be tampered with': 84 7 8
  2. 2022 January 12, Sir Michael Holden, “Reform of the workforce or death by a thousand cuts?”, in RAIL, number 948, page 24:
    Sense id: en-sacred_cow-en-noun-nckYTTwp Categories (other): Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries, Terms with Hebrew translations, Terms with Swedish translations Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 37 30 32 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 38 30 31 Disambiguation of Terms with Hebrew translations: 32 33 35 Disambiguation of Terms with Swedish translations: 36 31 33
  3. 2022 January 12, Sir Michael Holden, “Reform of the workforce or death by a thousand cuts?”, in RAIL, number 948, page 24: Related terms: holy cow, third rail, totem
    Sense id: en-sacred_cow-en-noun-zrfqOfOB Categories (other): Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries, Terms with Hebrew translations, Terms with Swedish translations Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 37 30 32 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 38 30 31 Disambiguation of Terms with Hebrew translations: 32 33 35 Disambiguation of Terms with Swedish translations: 36 31 33

Inflected forms

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  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
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      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1965 December, Phil Ochs, “That Was The Year That Weren't”, in Cavalier:",
          "text": "Many sacred cows were milked dry in an unbelievable series of outrageous events.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1967, Paul Krassner, The Realist, issue 74, May 1967, front page tagline",
          "text": "Irreverence is our only sacred cow."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Something which cannot be tampered with, or criticized, for fear of public outcry. A person, institution, belief system, etc. which, for no reason other than the demands of established social etiquette or popular opinion, should be accorded respect or reverence, and not touched, handled or examined too closely."
      ],
      "id": "en-sacred_cow-en-noun-hnMq8aBr",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) Something which cannot be tampered with, or criticized, for fear of public outcry. A person, institution, belief system, etc. which, for no reason other than the demands of established social etiquette or popular opinion, should be accorded respect or reverence, and not touched, handled or examined too closely."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "_dis1": "84 7 8",
          "code": "da",
          "lang": "Danish",
          "sense": "something which cannot be tampered with",
          "word": "hellig ko"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "84 7 8",
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "something which cannot be tampered with",
          "word": "pyhä lehmä"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "84 7 8",
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "sense": "something which cannot be tampered with",
          "word": "monstre sacré"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "84 7 8",
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "sense": "something which cannot be tampered with",
          "tags": [
            "feminine"
          ],
          "word": "vache sacrée"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "84 7 8",
          "code": "he",
          "lang": "Hebrew",
          "roman": "para kdosha",
          "sense": "something which cannot be tampered with",
          "tags": [
            "feminine"
          ],
          "word": "פרה קדושה"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "84 7 8",
          "code": "hu",
          "lang": "Hungarian",
          "sense": "something which cannot be tampered with",
          "word": "szent tehén"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "84 7 8",
          "code": "pl",
          "lang": "Polish",
          "sense": "something which cannot be tampered with",
          "tags": [
            "feminine"
          ],
          "word": "święta krowa"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "84 7 8",
          "code": "pt",
          "lang": "Portuguese",
          "sense": "something which cannot be tampered with",
          "tags": [
            "feminine"
          ],
          "word": "vaca sagrada"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "84 7 8",
          "code": "ru",
          "lang": "Russian",
          "roman": "svjaščénnaja koróva",
          "sense": "something which cannot be tampered with",
          "tags": [
            "feminine"
          ],
          "word": "свяще́нная коро́ва"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "84 7 8",
          "code": "es",
          "lang": "Spanish",
          "sense": "something which cannot be tampered with",
          "tags": [
            "feminine"
          ],
          "word": "vaca sagrada"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "84 7 8",
          "code": "sv",
          "lang": "Swedish",
          "sense": "something which cannot be tampered with",
          "tags": [
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          ],
          "word": "helig ko"
        }
      ]
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      "id": "en-sacred_cow-en-noun-nckYTTwp",
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        "In my opinion, in order to save serious amounts of money, a number of 'sacred cows' will need slaying."
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          "_dis1": "8 21 71",
          "word": "holy cow"
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        {
          "_dis1": "8 21 71",
          "word": "third rail"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "8 21 71",
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        }
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        },
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        "(idiomatic) Something which cannot be tampered with, or criticized, for fear of public outcry. A person, institution, belief system, etc. which, for no reason other than the demands of established social etiquette or popular opinion, should be accorded respect or reverence, and not touched, handled or examined too closely."
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    {
      "code": "da",
      "lang": "Danish",
      "sense": "something which cannot be tampered with",
      "word": "hellig ko"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "something which cannot be tampered with",
      "word": "pyhä lehmä"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "something which cannot be tampered with",
      "word": "monstre sacré"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "something which cannot be tampered with",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "vache sacrée"
    },
    {
      "code": "he",
      "lang": "Hebrew",
      "roman": "para kdosha",
      "sense": "something which cannot be tampered with",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "פרה קדושה"
    },
    {
      "code": "hu",
      "lang": "Hungarian",
      "sense": "something which cannot be tampered with",
      "word": "szent tehén"
    },
    {
      "code": "pl",
      "lang": "Polish",
      "sense": "something which cannot be tampered with",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "święta krowa"
    },
    {
      "code": "pt",
      "lang": "Portuguese",
      "sense": "something which cannot be tampered with",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "vaca sagrada"
    },
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      "lang": "Russian",
      "roman": "svjaščénnaja koróva",
      "sense": "something which cannot be tampered with",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "свяще́нная коро́ва"
    },
    {
      "code": "es",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "sense": "something which cannot be tampered with",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "vaca sagrada"
    },
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  "word": "sacred cow"
}

Download raw JSONL data for sacred cow meaning in English (4.6kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-11-06 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-10-02 using wiktextract (fbeafe8 and 7f03c9b). 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.