"stir up a hornets' nest" meaning in English

See stir up a hornets' nest in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Verb

Forms: kick a hornets' nest [alternative]
Head templates: {{head|en|verb|head=stir up a hornets' nest}} stir up a hornets' nest
  1. to do or say something that causes a lot of trouble or controversy Translations (Translations): tynnu nyth cacwn ar ei ben (Welsh)
{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "kick a hornets' nest",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "verb",
        "head": "stir up a hornets' nest"
      },
      "expansion": "stir up a hornets' nest",
      "name": "head"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Entries with translation boxes",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Welsh translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "to do or say something that causes a lot of trouble or controversy"
      ],
      "id": "en-stir_up_a_hornets'_nest-en-verb-miJUFNsU",
      "translations": [
        {
          "code": "cy",
          "lang": "Welsh",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "word": "tynnu nyth cacwn ar ei ben"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "stir up a hornets' nest"
}
{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "kick a hornets' nest",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "verb",
        "head": "stir up a hornets' nest"
      },
      "expansion": "stir up a hornets' nest",
      "name": "head"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English verbs",
        "Entries with translation boxes",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries",
        "Terms with Welsh translations",
        "Translation table header lacks gloss"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "to do or say something that causes a lot of trouble or controversy"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "cy",
      "lang": "Welsh",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "word": "tynnu nyth cacwn ar ei ben"
    }
  ],
  "word": "stir up a hornets' nest"
}

Download raw JSONL data for stir up a hornets' nest meaning in English (0.8kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-05-16 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-05-01 using wiktextract (142890b and 1d3fdbf). 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.