"take someone's name in vain" meaning in English

See take someone's name in vain in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Verb

Forms: takes someone's name in vain [present, singular, third-person], taking someone's name in vain [participle, present], took someone's name in vain [past], taken someone's name in vain [participle, past]
Head templates: {{en-verb|take<,,took,taken> someone's name in vain}} take someone's name in vain (third-person singular simple present takes someone's name in vain, present participle taking someone's name in vain, simple past took someone's name in vain, past participle taken someone's name in vain)
  1. to speak insultingly about someone
    Sense id: en-take_someone's_name_in_vain-en-verb-gQeGOd6f Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header

Download JSON data for take someone's name in vain meaning in English (2.5kB)

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "takes someone's name in vain",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "taking someone's name in vain",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "took someone's name in vain",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "taken someone's name in vain",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "take<,,took,taken> someone's name in vain"
      },
      "expansion": "take someone's name in vain (third-person singular simple present takes someone's name in vain, present participle taking someone's name in vain, simple past took someone's name in vain, past participle taken someone's name in vain)",
      "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": "1887, Elizabeth Stuart Phelps, Jack the Fisherman, page 17",
          "text": "He never once took her name in vain among the fellows: and she had not been a very good girl, either.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2010, William J. Mann, How to Be a Movie Star: Elizabeth Taylor in Hollywood 1941-1981, Faber & Faber, page 55",
          "text": "Hollywood honchos courted her, flattered her, showered her with gifts—and took her name in vain behind her back.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1977, United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on the Judiciary. Subcommittee on Antitrust and Monopoly, Oversight of Antitrust Enforcement: Hearings Before the Subcommittee on Antitrust and Monopoly of the Committee on the Judiciary, United States Senate, Ninety-fifth Congress, First Session ..., page 484",
          "text": "I took your name in vain, Mr. Mathias , in suggesting that we would have another good ally on the Appropriations Committee to get money for additional assistance down there.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1851, William J. O'Neill Daunt, The Gentleman in Debt: A Novel, page 75",
          "text": "I'm afeard I took your name in vain, awhile ago , young gentleman; but how could I tell you were hearkening to me ?”",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1936, The National Review",
          "text": "All this bother is due to my interfering in matters which do not concern me but concern your W.D. Mrs. F. will make F. squint , I expect! I took your name in vain.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "to speak insultingly about someone"
      ],
      "id": "en-take_someone's_name_in_vain-en-verb-gQeGOd6f",
      "links": [
        [
          "insult",
          "insult"
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "take someone's name in vain"
}
{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "takes someone's name in vain",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "taking someone's name in vain",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "took someone's name in vain",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "taken someone's name in vain",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "take<,,took,taken> someone's name in vain"
      },
      "expansion": "take someone's name in vain (third-person singular simple present takes someone's name in vain, present participle taking someone's name in vain, simple past took someone's name in vain, past participle taken someone's name in vain)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English verbs",
        "Quotation templates to be cleaned"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1887, Elizabeth Stuart Phelps, Jack the Fisherman, page 17",
          "text": "He never once took her name in vain among the fellows: and she had not been a very good girl, either.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2010, William J. Mann, How to Be a Movie Star: Elizabeth Taylor in Hollywood 1941-1981, Faber & Faber, page 55",
          "text": "Hollywood honchos courted her, flattered her, showered her with gifts—and took her name in vain behind her back.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1977, United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on the Judiciary. Subcommittee on Antitrust and Monopoly, Oversight of Antitrust Enforcement: Hearings Before the Subcommittee on Antitrust and Monopoly of the Committee on the Judiciary, United States Senate, Ninety-fifth Congress, First Session ..., page 484",
          "text": "I took your name in vain, Mr. Mathias , in suggesting that we would have another good ally on the Appropriations Committee to get money for additional assistance down there.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1851, William J. O'Neill Daunt, The Gentleman in Debt: A Novel, page 75",
          "text": "I'm afeard I took your name in vain, awhile ago , young gentleman; but how could I tell you were hearkening to me ?”",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1936, The National Review",
          "text": "All this bother is due to my interfering in matters which do not concern me but concern your W.D. Mrs. F. will make F. squint , I expect! I took your name in vain.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "to speak insultingly about someone"
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "insult",
          "insult"
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "take someone's name in vain"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-01 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-04-21 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.