"save the furniture" meaning in English

See save the furniture in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Verb

Audio: en-au-save the furniture.ogg [Australia] Forms: saves the furniture [present, singular, third-person], saving the furniture [participle, present], saved the furniture [participle, past], saved the furniture [past]
Etymology: An allusion to rapidly removing as much furniture as possible from a building threatened by fire, flood, or a similar disaster. Compare French sauver les meubles. Etymology templates: {{cog|fr|sauver les meubles}} French sauver les meubles Head templates: {{en-verb|*}} save the furniture (third-person singular simple present saves the furniture, present participle saving the furniture, simple past and past participle saved the furniture)
  1. (idiomatic, UK, Canada, Australia) To salvage something positive from a calamitous situation, especially one involving the reputation or fate of a political party. Tags: Australia, Canada, UK, idiomatic Categories (topical): Politics

Download JSON data for save the furniture meaning in English (3.8kB)

{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "fr",
        "2": "sauver les meubles"
      },
      "expansion": "French sauver les meubles",
      "name": "cog"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "An allusion to rapidly removing as much furniture as possible from a building threatened by fire, flood, or a similar disaster. Compare French sauver les meubles.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "saves the furniture",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "saving the furniture",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "saved the furniture",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "saved the furniture",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "*"
      },
      "expansion": "save the furniture (third-person singular simple present saves the furniture, present participle saving the furniture, simple past and past participle saved the furniture)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Australian English",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "British English",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Canadian English",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
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            "Entry maintenance"
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          "parents": [
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          "parents": [
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          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Politics",
          "orig": "en:Politics",
          "parents": [
            "Society",
            "All topics",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2013 October 4, Christopher Drew, “Why the Greens were the real election losers”, in ABC News, Australia, retrieved 2016-12-04",
          "text": "[S]winging progressives were keen to consolidate the diving Labor vote and save the furniture so that a reasonably-sized progressive opposition party could live to fight another day.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2015 October 4, Gloria Galloway, “Mulcair touts NDP as only way for western Canadians to oust Tories”, in Globe and Mail, Canada, retrieved 2016-12-04",
          "text": "A week after a headline in a Montreal newspaper suggested the NDP Leader’s numbers are so low it is time to “save the furniture,” he is still battling aggressively.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2016 March 9, John McTernan, “Jeremy Corbyn's days are numbered if MPs stand firm”, in Telegraph, UK, retrieved 2016-12-04",
          "text": "In other words, the PLP could unite behind an experienced figure who would take them to a dignified defeat but would save the furniture.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To salvage something positive from a calamitous situation, especially one involving the reputation or fate of a political party."
      ],
      "id": "en-save_the_furniture-en-verb-5DryTxNY",
      "links": [
        [
          "salvage",
          "salvage"
        ],
        [
          "calamitous",
          "calamitous"
        ],
        [
          "reputation",
          "reputation"
        ],
        [
          "fate",
          "fate"
        ],
        [
          "political party",
          "political party"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic, UK, Canada, Australia) To salvage something positive from a calamitous situation, especially one involving the reputation or fate of a political party."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "Australia",
        "Canada",
        "UK",
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "en-au-save the furniture.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/0/0c/En-au-save_the_furniture.ogg/En-au-save_the_furniture.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0c/En-au-save_the_furniture.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "word": "save the furniture"
}
{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "fr",
        "2": "sauver les meubles"
      },
      "expansion": "French sauver les meubles",
      "name": "cog"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "An allusion to rapidly removing as much furniture as possible from a building threatened by fire, flood, or a similar disaster. Compare French sauver les meubles.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "saves the furniture",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "saving the furniture",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "saved the furniture",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "saved the furniture",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "*"
      },
      "expansion": "save the furniture (third-person singular simple present saves the furniture, present participle saving the furniture, simple past and past participle saved the furniture)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "Australian English",
        "British English",
        "Canadian English",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English entries with topic categories using raw markup",
        "English idioms",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English terms with audio links",
        "English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English verbs",
        "en:Politics"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2013 October 4, Christopher Drew, “Why the Greens were the real election losers”, in ABC News, Australia, retrieved 2016-12-04",
          "text": "[S]winging progressives were keen to consolidate the diving Labor vote and save the furniture so that a reasonably-sized progressive opposition party could live to fight another day.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2015 October 4, Gloria Galloway, “Mulcair touts NDP as only way for western Canadians to oust Tories”, in Globe and Mail, Canada, retrieved 2016-12-04",
          "text": "A week after a headline in a Montreal newspaper suggested the NDP Leader’s numbers are so low it is time to “save the furniture,” he is still battling aggressively.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2016 March 9, John McTernan, “Jeremy Corbyn's days are numbered if MPs stand firm”, in Telegraph, UK, retrieved 2016-12-04",
          "text": "In other words, the PLP could unite behind an experienced figure who would take them to a dignified defeat but would save the furniture.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To salvage something positive from a calamitous situation, especially one involving the reputation or fate of a political party."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "salvage",
          "salvage"
        ],
        [
          "calamitous",
          "calamitous"
        ],
        [
          "reputation",
          "reputation"
        ],
        [
          "fate",
          "fate"
        ],
        [
          "political party",
          "political party"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic, UK, Canada, Australia) To salvage something positive from a calamitous situation, especially one involving the reputation or fate of a political party."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "Australia",
        "Canada",
        "UK",
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "en-au-save the furniture.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/0/0c/En-au-save_the_furniture.ogg/En-au-save_the_furniture.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0c/En-au-save_the_furniture.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "word": "save the furniture"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-04-26 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-04-21 using wiktextract (93a6c53 and 21a9316). 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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