"take a number" meaning in English

See take a number in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Verb

Audio: En-au-take a number.ogg [Australia] Forms: takes a number [present, singular, third-person], taking a number [participle, present], took a number [past], taken a number [participle, past]
Head templates: {{en-verb|take<,,took,taken> a number}} take a number (third-person singular simple present takes a number, present participle taking a number, simple past took a number, past participle taken a number)
  1. To queue; to wait to be served by being assigned a number and waiting for that number to be called after all previous numbers have been served in order of assignment. Related terms: take a back seat, take a seat
    Sense id: en-take_a_number-en-verb-XAHyrdEl Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 48 52
  2. (idiomatic) To recognize that many others are in the same situation; recognize that one's concerns are not of high priority; be prepared to wait. Tags: idiomatic
    Sense id: en-take_a_number-en-verb-fchRR09m Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 48 52

Download JSON data for take a number meaning in English (2.7kB)

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "takes a number",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "taking a number",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "took a number",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "taken a number",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "take<,,took,taken> a number"
      },
      "expansion": "take a number (third-person singular simple present takes a number, present participle taking a number, simple past took a number, past participle taken a number)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "48 52",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To queue; to wait to be served by being assigned a number and waiting for that number to be called after all previous numbers have been served in order of assignment."
      ],
      "id": "en-take_a_number-en-verb-XAHyrdEl",
      "links": [
        [
          "queue",
          "queue"
        ],
        [
          "served",
          "served"
        ]
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "_dis1": "100 0",
          "word": "take a back seat"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "100 0",
          "word": "take a seat"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "48 52",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1994 September 12, Stryker McGuire et al., “Sale Of The Century?”, in Newsweek",
          "text": "Wanna buy a television network? Take a number. A few years ago you would have had the field to yourself.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2000 August 8, Tony Karon, “Chile Exorcises the Specter of Pinochet”, in Time",
          "text": "Even if they did decide to prosecute, the Justice Department would have to take a number and stand in a very long line.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To recognize that many others are in the same situation; recognize that one's concerns are not of high priority; be prepared to wait."
      ],
      "id": "en-take_a_number-en-verb-fchRR09m",
      "links": [
        [
          "recognize",
          "recognize"
        ],
        [
          "same",
          "same"
        ],
        [
          "situation",
          "situation"
        ],
        [
          "priority",
          "priority"
        ],
        [
          "wait",
          "wait"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) To recognize that many others are in the same situation; recognize that one's concerns are not of high priority; be prepared to wait."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "En-au-take a number.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/3/30/En-au-take_a_number.ogg/En-au-take_a_number.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/30/En-au-take_a_number.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "word": "take a number"
}
{
  "categories": [
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English terms with audio links",
    "English verbs"
  ],
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "takes a number",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "taking a number",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "took a number",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "taken a number",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "take<,,took,taken> a number"
      },
      "expansion": "take a number (third-person singular simple present takes a number, present participle taking a number, simple past took a number, past participle taken a number)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "take a back seat"
    },
    {
      "word": "take a seat"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "glosses": [
        "To queue; to wait to be served by being assigned a number and waiting for that number to be called after all previous numbers have been served in order of assignment."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "queue",
          "queue"
        ],
        [
          "served",
          "served"
        ]
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English idioms",
        "English terms with quotations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1994 September 12, Stryker McGuire et al., “Sale Of The Century?”, in Newsweek",
          "text": "Wanna buy a television network? Take a number. A few years ago you would have had the field to yourself.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2000 August 8, Tony Karon, “Chile Exorcises the Specter of Pinochet”, in Time",
          "text": "Even if they did decide to prosecute, the Justice Department would have to take a number and stand in a very long line.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To recognize that many others are in the same situation; recognize that one's concerns are not of high priority; be prepared to wait."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "recognize",
          "recognize"
        ],
        [
          "same",
          "same"
        ],
        [
          "situation",
          "situation"
        ],
        [
          "priority",
          "priority"
        ],
        [
          "wait",
          "wait"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) To recognize that many others are in the same situation; recognize that one's concerns are not of high priority; be prepared to wait."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "En-au-take a number.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/3/30/En-au-take_a_number.ogg/En-au-take_a_number.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/30/En-au-take_a_number.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "word": "take a number"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-05 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-05-02 using wiktextract (f4fd8c9 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.