"should on" meaning in English

See should on in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Verb

Forms: shoulds on [present, singular, third-person], shoulding on [participle, present], shoulded on [participle, past], shoulded on [past]
Etymology: Attributed to Albert Ellis (1913–2007), American psychologist and psychotherapist; perhaps intended to evoke shit on. Head templates: {{en-verb|*|*|*}} should on (third-person singular simple present shoulds on, present participle shoulding on, simple past and past participle shoulded on)
  1. (US, colloquial) To impose judgment on (oneself or others) by telling them what they should do. Wikipedia link: Albert Ellis Tags: US, colloquial

Inflected forms

{
  "etymology_text": "Attributed to Albert Ellis (1913–2007), American psychologist and psychotherapist; perhaps intended to evoke shit on.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "shoulds on",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "shoulding on",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "shoulded on",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "shoulded on",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "*",
        "2": "*",
        "3": "*"
      },
      "expansion": "should on (third-person singular simple present shoulds on, present participle shoulding on, simple past and past participle shoulded on)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "American English",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English phrasal verbs formed with \"on\"",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              0,
              12
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "2009, Ecallaw Leachim, Ratology: Way of the Undamned, page 100:",
          "text": "Shoulding on yourself keeps you imprisoned in other people's beliefs and it makes you a puppet on a string […]",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "text": "2014, Jan Johnson, Invitation to the Jesus Life: Experiments in Christlikeness\nAs we join Jesus in death to self, we stop \"shoulding\" on people and telling them what to do: You should read this book; you should go to this conference."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To impose judgment on (oneself or others) by telling them what they should do."
      ],
      "id": "en-should_on-en-verb-evJu30CI",
      "links": [
        [
          "impose",
          "impose"
        ],
        [
          "judgment",
          "judgment"
        ],
        [
          "should",
          "should"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(US, colloquial) To impose judgment on (oneself or others) by telling them what they should do."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "US",
        "colloquial"
      ],
      "wikipedia": [
        "Albert Ellis"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "should on"
}
{
  "etymology_text": "Attributed to Albert Ellis (1913–2007), American psychologist and psychotherapist; perhaps intended to evoke shit on.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "shoulds on",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "shoulding on",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "shoulded on",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "shoulded on",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "*",
        "2": "*",
        "3": "*"
      },
      "expansion": "should on (third-person singular simple present shoulds on, present participle shoulding on, simple past and past participle shoulded on)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "American English",
        "English colloquialisms",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English phrasal verbs",
        "English phrasal verbs formed with \"on\"",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English verbs",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              0,
              12
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "2009, Ecallaw Leachim, Ratology: Way of the Undamned, page 100:",
          "text": "Shoulding on yourself keeps you imprisoned in other people's beliefs and it makes you a puppet on a string […]",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "text": "2014, Jan Johnson, Invitation to the Jesus Life: Experiments in Christlikeness\nAs we join Jesus in death to self, we stop \"shoulding\" on people and telling them what to do: You should read this book; you should go to this conference."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To impose judgment on (oneself or others) by telling them what they should do."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "impose",
          "impose"
        ],
        [
          "judgment",
          "judgment"
        ],
        [
          "should",
          "should"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(US, colloquial) To impose judgment on (oneself or others) by telling them what they should do."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "US",
        "colloquial"
      ],
      "wikipedia": [
        "Albert Ellis"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "should on"
}

Download raw JSONL data for should on meaning in English (1.9kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2026-02-19 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2026-02-01 using wiktextract (f492ef9 and 59dc20b). 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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