"starve the beast" meaning in English

See starve the beast in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Verb

Forms: starves the beast [present, singular, third-person], starving the beast [participle, present], starved the beast [participle, past], starved the beast [past]
Etymology: According to Bruce Bartlett, the second sense was first used by an anonymous Reagan staffer in “We didn’t starve the beast. It’s still eating quite well—by feeding off future generations.” Head templates: {{en-verb|*}} starve the beast (third-person singular simple present starves the beast, present participle starving the beast, simple past and past participle starved the beast)
  1. (US) To progressively weaken or destroy a dangerous or powerful entity through attrition. Tags: US Categories (topical): Economics
    Sense id: en-starve_the_beast-en-verb-MljAsTTw Disambiguation of Economics: 65 35 Categories (other): American English, English entries with incorrect language header, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 63 37 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 68 32 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 76 24
  2. (US politics) To deprive the federal government of revenue by cutting taxes in an effort to force it to limit spending. Tags: US Categories (topical): US politics, Conservatism, Government, Politics, Taxation
    Sense id: en-starve_the_beast-en-verb-I77MaGOp Disambiguation of Conservatism: 38 62 Disambiguation of Government: 0 100 Disambiguation of Politics: 0 100 Disambiguation of Taxation: 17 83 Topics: government, politics

Inflected forms

{
  "etymology_text": "According to Bruce Bartlett, the second sense was first used by an anonymous Reagan staffer in “We didn’t starve the beast. It’s still eating quite well—by feeding off future generations.”",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "starves the beast",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "starving the beast",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "starved the beast",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "starved the beast",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "*"
      },
      "expansion": "starve the beast (third-person singular simple present starves the beast, present participle starving the beast, simple past and past participle starved the beast)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "American English",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "63 37",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "68 32",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "76 24",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "65 35",
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Economics",
          "orig": "en:Economics",
          "parents": [
            "Social sciences",
            "Sciences",
            "Society",
            "All topics",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To progressively weaken or destroy a dangerous or powerful entity through attrition."
      ],
      "id": "en-starve_the_beast-en-verb-MljAsTTw",
      "links": [
        [
          "weaken",
          "weaken"
        ],
        [
          "destroy",
          "destroy"
        ],
        [
          "attrition",
          "attrition"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(US) To progressively weaken or destroy a dangerous or powerful entity through attrition."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "US politics",
          "orig": "en:US politics",
          "parents": [
            "Politics",
            "United States",
            "Society",
            "North America",
            "All topics",
            "America",
            "Fundamental",
            "Earth",
            "Nature"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "38 62",
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Conservatism",
          "orig": "en:Conservatism",
          "parents": [
            "Ideologies",
            "Politics",
            "Society",
            "All topics",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "0 100",
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Government",
          "orig": "en:Government",
          "parents": [
            "Politics",
            "Society",
            "All topics",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "0 100",
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Politics",
          "orig": "en:Politics",
          "parents": [
            "Society",
            "All topics",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "17 83",
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Taxation",
          "orig": "en:Taxation",
          "parents": [
            "Government",
            "Law",
            "Money",
            "Politics",
            "Society",
            "Justice",
            "Business",
            "All topics",
            "Economics",
            "Fundamental",
            "Social sciences",
            "Sciences"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2010 February 22, Catherine Rampell, “A New Social Contract, but Which One?”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2021-10-16:",
          "text": "Whatever the mechanism, attempts to starve the beast through revenue shortages somehow seem to make the beast all the more voracious.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To deprive the federal government of revenue by cutting taxes in an effort to force it to limit spending."
      ],
      "id": "en-starve_the_beast-en-verb-I77MaGOp",
      "links": [
        [
          "federal government",
          "federal government"
        ],
        [
          "revenue",
          "revenue"
        ],
        [
          "spending",
          "spending"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(US politics) To deprive the federal government of revenue by cutting taxes in an effort to force it to limit spending."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ],
      "topics": [
        "government",
        "politics"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "wikipedia": [
    "Bruce Bartlett",
    "Ronald Reagan",
    "The Independent Review"
  ],
  "word": "starve the beast"
}
{
  "categories": [
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English verbs",
    "Pages with 1 entry",
    "Pages with entries",
    "en:Conservatism",
    "en:Economics",
    "en:Government",
    "en:Politics",
    "en:Taxation"
  ],
  "etymology_text": "According to Bruce Bartlett, the second sense was first used by an anonymous Reagan staffer in “We didn’t starve the beast. It’s still eating quite well—by feeding off future generations.”",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "starves the beast",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "starving the beast",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "starved the beast",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "starved the beast",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "*"
      },
      "expansion": "starve the beast (third-person singular simple present starves the beast, present participle starving the beast, simple past and past participle starved the beast)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "American English"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To progressively weaken or destroy a dangerous or powerful entity through attrition."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "weaken",
          "weaken"
        ],
        [
          "destroy",
          "destroy"
        ],
        [
          "attrition",
          "attrition"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(US) To progressively weaken or destroy a dangerous or powerful entity through attrition."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with quotations",
        "en:US politics"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2010 February 22, Catherine Rampell, “A New Social Contract, but Which One?”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2021-10-16:",
          "text": "Whatever the mechanism, attempts to starve the beast through revenue shortages somehow seem to make the beast all the more voracious.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To deprive the federal government of revenue by cutting taxes in an effort to force it to limit spending."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "federal government",
          "federal government"
        ],
        [
          "revenue",
          "revenue"
        ],
        [
          "spending",
          "spending"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(US politics) To deprive the federal government of revenue by cutting taxes in an effort to force it to limit spending."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ],
      "topics": [
        "government",
        "politics"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "wikipedia": [
    "Bruce Bartlett",
    "Ronald Reagan",
    "The Independent Review"
  ],
  "word": "starve the beast"
}

Download raw JSONL data for starve the beast meaning in English (2.3kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-11-06 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-10-02 using wiktextract (fbeafe8 and 7f03c9b). 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.