See short end of the stick in All languages combined, or Wiktionary
Download JSON data for short end of the stick meaning in English (3.4kB)
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"2": "shit end of the stick"
},
"expansion": "shit end of the stick",
"name": "m"
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"etymology_text": "Suggested to be a minced oath of shit end of the stick which appears to pre-date \"short end of the stick\" euphemistically. Possibly also derived from a previous literal meaning, though the precise literal meaning is unclear.",
"forms": [
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"form": "short ends of the stick",
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"pos": "noun",
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{
"ref": "1963 April, Ralph E. Lapp, \"The Strategy of Overkill,\" Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, p. 10 (Google preview)",
"text": "Soviet emphasis on high-yield weapons might give them a megaton surplus. . . . We might then be on the short end of the stick."
},
{
"ref": "1981 August 24, Claudia Wallis, “Gee Thanks, Ronnie, but...”, in Time, retrieved 2014-04-10",
"text": "[T]he 44 Governors . . . spent three days in tense, often heated discussion of the enormous political and fiscal problems handed to the states under President Reagan's \"new federalism.\" Said Wisconsin Governor Lee Dreyfus: \"There is some apprehension on the part of the Governors that we are getting the short end of the stick.\"",
"type": "quotation"
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{
"ref": "2010 July 9, Bob Herbert, “Restoring a Hallowed Vision”, in New York Times, retrieved 2014-04-10",
"text": "[W]orking people are sick and tired of the bosses getting million-dollar bonuses and the workers getting the short end of the stick.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2012 September 2, Tim Jonze, “Africa Express: rolling coverage”, in Guardian, UK, retrieved 2014-04-10",
"text": "Does this mean Middlesbrough get the short end of the stick, with what will surely be the most ramshackle show of the tour?",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2021 August 5, Shira Ovide, “YouTube Is Underwhelming”, in The New York Times, →ISSN",
"text": "I learned the hard way that people who ditch cable TV still get the short end of the stick.",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"A situation, opportunity, or outcome which is less favorable than situations, opportunities, or outcomes experienced by or available to others."
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"id": "en-short_end_of_the_stick-en-noun-3GH6szeD",
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"(idiomatic) A situation, opportunity, or outcome which is less favorable than situations, opportunities, or outcomes experienced by or available to others."
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"word": "wrong end of the stick"
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"synonyms": [
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"word": "raw deal"
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{
"word": "short end"
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"etymology_text": "Suggested to be a minced oath of shit end of the stick which appears to pre-date \"short end of the stick\" euphemistically. Possibly also derived from a previous literal meaning, though the precise literal meaning is unclear.",
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"pos": "noun",
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"examples": [
{
"ref": "1963 April, Ralph E. Lapp, \"The Strategy of Overkill,\" Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, p. 10 (Google preview)",
"text": "Soviet emphasis on high-yield weapons might give them a megaton surplus. . . . We might then be on the short end of the stick."
},
{
"ref": "1981 August 24, Claudia Wallis, “Gee Thanks, Ronnie, but...”, in Time, retrieved 2014-04-10",
"text": "[T]he 44 Governors . . . spent three days in tense, often heated discussion of the enormous political and fiscal problems handed to the states under President Reagan's \"new federalism.\" Said Wisconsin Governor Lee Dreyfus: \"There is some apprehension on the part of the Governors that we are getting the short end of the stick.\"",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2010 July 9, Bob Herbert, “Restoring a Hallowed Vision”, in New York Times, retrieved 2014-04-10",
"text": "[W]orking people are sick and tired of the bosses getting million-dollar bonuses and the workers getting the short end of the stick.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2012 September 2, Tim Jonze, “Africa Express: rolling coverage”, in Guardian, UK, retrieved 2014-04-10",
"text": "Does this mean Middlesbrough get the short end of the stick, with what will surely be the most ramshackle show of the tour?",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2021 August 5, Shira Ovide, “YouTube Is Underwhelming”, in The New York Times, →ISSN",
"text": "I learned the hard way that people who ditch cable TV still get the short end of the stick.",
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}
],
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"(idiomatic) A situation, opportunity, or outcome which is less favorable than situations, opportunities, or outcomes experienced by or available to others."
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"sounds": [
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"synonyms": [
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"word": "raw deal"
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{
"word": "short end"
}
],
"word": "short end of the stick"
}
This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-04-30 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-04-21 using wiktextract (210104c 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.