See set the Thames on fire in All languages combined, or Wiktionary
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"etymology_text": "Unknown. Suggested to derive from a misconstrual of temse (“sieve”): thus, to work so vigorously as to heat a sieve by friction. Alternatively, a reference to lightning strikes which sometimes occurred along the Thames, occasionally setting trees on fire or causing death in unusual manner. Otherwise simply by hyperbole, from the impossibility of setting a river on fire (although the image might sound like a familiar reference to the Great London fire of 1666).",
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"text": "The baronet will never set the Thames on fire, but there seems no harm in him.",
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{
"ref": "1884, WS Gilbert, ‘Princess Ida’, The Complete Annotated Gilbert and Sullivan, Oxford University Press, published 1996, page 491:",
"text": "They intend to send a wire / To the moon — to the moon; / And they'll set the Thames on fire / Very soon — very soon",
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{
"ref": "1925, GK Chesterton, “The Ultimate Ultimatum of the League of the Long Bow”, in The Collected Works, Ignatius Press, published 2005, page 402:",
"text": "Do you remember when you jumped into the water after the flowers? I fancy it was then you really set the Thames on fire.",
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{
"ref": "1985, Tom Waits (lyrics and music), “Anywhere I Lay My Head”:",
"text": "My head is spinning round / my heart is in my shoes, yeah / I went and set the Thames on fire, oh / now I must come back down.",
"type": "quote"
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"code": "hy",
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"roman": "hraškʻ gorcel",
"sense": "to achieve something amazing",
"word": "հրաշք գործել"
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"code": "cmn",
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"roman": "jīngrénzhījǔ",
"sense": "to achieve something amazing",
"word": "惊人之举"
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"sense": "to achieve something amazing",
"word": "casser trois pattes à un canard"
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"lang": "German",
"sense": "to achieve something amazing",
"word": "die Welt aus den Angeln heben"
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"sense": "to achieve something amazing",
"word": "अनोखा काम करना"
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"sense": "to achieve something amazing",
"word": "meter uma lança em África"
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"roman": "výdumatʹ pórox",
"sense": "to achieve something amazing",
"tags": [
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"word": "вы́думать по́рох"
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"roman": "dostátʹ lunu s neba",
"sense": "to achieve something amazing",
"word": "доста́ть луну с неба"
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"roman": "dotjanútʹsja do zvjozd",
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"word": "дотяну́ться до звёзд"
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"sense": "to achieve something amazing",
"word": "encender la pradera"
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"sense": "to achieve something amazing",
"word": "long trời lở đất"
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"code": "vi",
"lang": "Vietnamese",
"sense": "to achieve something amazing",
"word": "kinh thiên động địa"
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"code": "vi",
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"sense": "to achieve something amazing",
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"text": "The baronet will never set the Thames on fire, but there seems no harm in him.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "1884, WS Gilbert, ‘Princess Ida’, The Complete Annotated Gilbert and Sullivan, Oxford University Press, published 1996, page 491:",
"text": "They intend to send a wire / To the moon — to the moon; / And they'll set the Thames on fire / Very soon — very soon",
"type": "quote"
},
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"ref": "1925, GK Chesterton, “The Ultimate Ultimatum of the League of the Long Bow”, in The Collected Works, Ignatius Press, published 2005, page 402:",
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"type": "quote"
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"ref": "1985, Tom Waits (lyrics and music), “Anywhere I Lay My Head”:",
"text": "My head is spinning round / my heart is in my shoes, yeah / I went and set the Thames on fire, oh / now I must come back down.",
"type": "quote"
}
],
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"To achieve something amazing but to a nearly-impossible degree; to do something which brings great public acclaim."
],
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"(chiefly in the negative, idiomatic) To achieve something amazing but to a nearly-impossible degree; to do something which brings great public acclaim."
],
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"code": "hy",
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"sense": "to achieve something amazing",
"word": "հրաշք գործել"
},
{
"code": "cmn",
"lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
"roman": "yǐnqǐhōngdòng",
"sense": "to achieve something amazing",
"word": "引起轰动"
},
{
"code": "cmn",
"lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
"roman": "jīngrénzhījǔ",
"sense": "to achieve something amazing",
"word": "惊人之举"
},
{
"code": "fr",
"lang": "French",
"sense": "to achieve something amazing",
"word": "casser trois pattes à un canard"
},
{
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "to achieve something amazing",
"word": "die Welt aus den Angeln heben"
},
{
"code": "hi",
"lang": "Hindi",
"roman": "anokhā kām karnā",
"sense": "to achieve something amazing",
"word": "अनोखा काम करना"
},
{
"code": "pt",
"lang": "Portuguese",
"sense": "to achieve something amazing",
"word": "meter uma lança em África"
},
{
"code": "ru",
"lang": "Russian",
"roman": "výdumatʹ pórox",
"sense": "to achieve something amazing",
"tags": [
"perfective"
],
"word": "вы́думать по́рох"
},
{
"code": "ru",
"lang": "Russian",
"roman": "dostátʹ lunu s neba",
"sense": "to achieve something amazing",
"word": "доста́ть луну с неба"
},
{
"code": "ru",
"lang": "Russian",
"roman": "dotjanútʹsja do zvjozd",
"sense": "to achieve something amazing",
"tags": [
"perfective"
],
"word": "дотяну́ться до звёзд"
},
{
"code": "es",
"lang": "Spanish",
"sense": "to achieve something amazing",
"word": "encender la pradera"
},
{
"code": "vi",
"lang": "Vietnamese",
"sense": "to achieve something amazing",
"word": "long trời lở đất"
},
{
"code": "vi",
"lang": "Vietnamese",
"sense": "to achieve something amazing",
"word": "kinh thiên động địa"
},
{
"code": "vi",
"lang": "Vietnamese",
"sense": "to achieve something amazing",
"word": "thành công rực rỡ"
}
],
"word": "set the Thames on fire"
}
Download raw JSONL data for set the Thames on fire meaning in English (5.7kB)
This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-01-25 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-01-20 using wiktextract (c15a5ce and 5c11237). 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.