"show ankle" meaning in English

See show ankle in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Verb

Audio: En-au-show ankle.ogg [Australia] Forms: shows ankle [present, singular, third-person], showing ankle [participle, present], showed ankle [past], shown ankle [participle, past]
Etymology: Probably an allusion to the flirtatious practice by some young women, especially in the first half of the twentieth century, of raising a long skirt sufficiently to reveal a bare ankle but no more than that. Head templates: {{en-verb|show<,,,shown> ankle}} show ankle (third-person singular simple present shows ankle, present participle showing ankle, simple past showed ankle, past participle shown ankle)
  1. (idiomatic) To provide a hint or to reveal partial information in order to gain attention or arouse interest. Tags: idiomatic Related terms: come-on
    Sense id: en-show_ankle-en-verb-RSGPWr6D Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header

Download JSON data for show ankle meaning in English (3.3kB)

{
  "etymology_text": "Probably an allusion to the flirtatious practice by some young women, especially in the first half of the twentieth century, of raising a long skirt sufficiently to reveal a bare ankle but no more than that.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "shows ankle",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "showing ankle",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "showed ankle",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "shown ankle",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "show<,,,shown> ankle"
      },
      "expansion": "show ankle (third-person singular simple present shows ankle, present participle showing ankle, simple past showed ankle, past participle shown ankle)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1984 November 28, William Beecher, “Reagan under Pressure to Modify Arms Stance”, in Boston Globe, USA, page 1",
          "text": "\"He figures that to do so, he'll have to be able to show a little ankle, to give some idea of new positions the United States is prepared to take.\"",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1987 November 23, “Suddenly, A Visit by Cuomo Enlivens a Benefit For Casey”, in Philadelphia Inquirer, USA, page B01",
          "text": "No one expects Cuomo to declare his candidacy tonight But Carduff said \"we expect him to show some ankle\".",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2005 June 7, Erin Joyce, “SQL Server 2005 Queues Up for Prime Time”, in InternetNews.com, USA, retrieved 2011-09-05",
          "text": "Microsoft showed some ankle and then some with advanced tools, database and server features in the latest builds of SQL Server 2005, Visual Studio 2005 and BizTalk Server 2006.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2006 October 18, “On the right track”, in The Telegraph, UK, retrieved 2011-09-05",
          "text": "Now, it seems, the shadow chancellor, George Osborne, is ready to show a little ankle by welcoming a proposal from Lord Forsyth's tax commission to abolish stamp duty on shares.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2011 August 12, “Football & Sport: Manchester United: A Comparison of Sneijder, Cantona, Scholes And Ronaldo”, in Sabotage Times, UK, retrieved 2011-09-05",
          "text": "Sneijder showed some ankle last week with a veiled ‘come and get me’ plea that was promptly rebuffed by David Gill stating that the deal probably won’t go ahead now.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To provide a hint or to reveal partial information in order to gain attention or arouse interest."
      ],
      "id": "en-show_ankle-en-verb-RSGPWr6D",
      "links": [
        [
          "hint",
          "hint"
        ],
        [
          "reveal",
          "reveal"
        ],
        [
          "partial",
          "partial"
        ],
        [
          "attention",
          "attention"
        ],
        [
          "interest",
          "interest"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) To provide a hint or to reveal partial information in order to gain attention or arouse interest."
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "word": "come-on"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "En-au-show ankle.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/5/5b/En-au-show_ankle.ogg/En-au-show_ankle.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5b/En-au-show_ankle.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "word": "show ankle"
}
{
  "etymology_text": "Probably an allusion to the flirtatious practice by some young women, especially in the first half of the twentieth century, of raising a long skirt sufficiently to reveal a bare ankle but no more than that.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "shows ankle",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "showing ankle",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "showed ankle",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "shown ankle",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "show<,,,shown> ankle"
      },
      "expansion": "show ankle (third-person singular simple present shows ankle, present participle showing ankle, simple past showed ankle, past participle shown ankle)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "come-on"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English idioms",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English terms with audio links",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English verbs"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1984 November 28, William Beecher, “Reagan under Pressure to Modify Arms Stance”, in Boston Globe, USA, page 1",
          "text": "\"He figures that to do so, he'll have to be able to show a little ankle, to give some idea of new positions the United States is prepared to take.\"",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1987 November 23, “Suddenly, A Visit by Cuomo Enlivens a Benefit For Casey”, in Philadelphia Inquirer, USA, page B01",
          "text": "No one expects Cuomo to declare his candidacy tonight But Carduff said \"we expect him to show some ankle\".",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2005 June 7, Erin Joyce, “SQL Server 2005 Queues Up for Prime Time”, in InternetNews.com, USA, retrieved 2011-09-05",
          "text": "Microsoft showed some ankle and then some with advanced tools, database and server features in the latest builds of SQL Server 2005, Visual Studio 2005 and BizTalk Server 2006.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2006 October 18, “On the right track”, in The Telegraph, UK, retrieved 2011-09-05",
          "text": "Now, it seems, the shadow chancellor, George Osborne, is ready to show a little ankle by welcoming a proposal from Lord Forsyth's tax commission to abolish stamp duty on shares.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2011 August 12, “Football & Sport: Manchester United: A Comparison of Sneijder, Cantona, Scholes And Ronaldo”, in Sabotage Times, UK, retrieved 2011-09-05",
          "text": "Sneijder showed some ankle last week with a veiled ‘come and get me’ plea that was promptly rebuffed by David Gill stating that the deal probably won’t go ahead now.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To provide a hint or to reveal partial information in order to gain attention or arouse interest."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "hint",
          "hint"
        ],
        [
          "reveal",
          "reveal"
        ],
        [
          "partial",
          "partial"
        ],
        [
          "attention",
          "attention"
        ],
        [
          "interest",
          "interest"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) To provide a hint or to reveal partial information in order to gain attention or arouse interest."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "En-au-show ankle.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/5/5b/En-au-show_ankle.ogg/En-au-show_ankle.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5b/En-au-show_ankle.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "word": "show ankle"
}

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.

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