See the jig is up in All languages combined, or Wiktionary
{
"etymology_text": "Jig is an old term for a lively dance, and in the Elizabethan era the word also became slang for a practical joke or a trick. This idiom derives from this obsolete slang word.",
"forms": [
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"form": "the jig was up",
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"name": "head"
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"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "phrase",
"senses": [
{
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"examples": [
{
"ref": "1753, The Skipper:",
"text": "We knew then the jig was up, and it was no grin matter for us.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "1833, Seba Smith (as Jack Downing), The life and writings of Major Jack Downing, of Downingville, away down East in the State of Maine, Lilly; Wait; Colman & Holden, page 176:",
"text": "When I first told 'em how the jig was up with us, that the British were going to have the land, without any fighting about it, I never see fellows so mad before in my life, unless it was Major Eaton at Washington when he sot out to flog Mr. Ingham.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "1920, Champ Clark, My Quarter Century of American Politics, Harper & brothers, page 96:",
"text": "After I had returned home in the spring of 1893 from Washington, where I saw so many gray-haired men who had held high elective office begging for the crumbs from Cleveland's table, I gave my wife an account of what I observed, and told her that when the jig was up for me I would hasten back to Missouri to begin the practice of law once more and be a man among men.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2007, Mary Newport, in Jerry Newport and Mary Newport, Mozart and the Whale: An Asperger's Love Story, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN, page 248:",
"text": "The universe works in strange ways: just when you think the jig is up, you get a second chance.",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"An expression used to mean \"We have been caught out and have no defense\", or if spoken to a person who has just been found out as the perpetrator of an offense, where it means \"You've been discovered\"."
],
"id": "en-the_jig_is_up-en-phrase-tpvnznM9",
"raw_glosses": [
"(Australia, New Zealand, US, idiomatic) An expression used to mean \"We have been caught out and have no defense\", or if spoken to a person who has just been found out as the perpetrator of an offense, where it means \"You've been discovered\"."
],
"synonyms": [
{
"word": "gotcha"
},
{
"word": "the game is up"
},
{
"word": "sussed"
},
{
"word": "jig's up"
},
{
"word": "one's jig is up"
},
{
"word": "one's jig's up"
},
{
"word": "the jig's up"
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"translations": [
{
"code": "es",
"lang": "Spanish",
"sense": "Translations",
"word": "se acabó el embuste"
},
{
"code": "es",
"lang": "Spanish",
"sense": "Translations",
"word": "se destapó la olla"
},
{
"code": "es",
"lang": "Spanish",
"sense": "Translations",
"word": "se descubrió el pastel"
},
{
"code": "es",
"lang": "Spanish",
"sense": "Translations",
"word": "se terminó el juego"
},
{
"code": "es",
"lang": "Spanish",
"sense": "Translations",
"word": "la fiesta se acabó"
}
],
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"Elizabethan era"
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"word": "the jig is up"
}
{
"etymology_text": "Jig is an old term for a lively dance, and in the Elizabethan era the word also became slang for a practical joke or a trick. This idiom derives from this obsolete slang word.",
"forms": [
{
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"pos": "phrase",
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"examples": [
{
"ref": "1753, The Skipper:",
"text": "We knew then the jig was up, and it was no grin matter for us.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "1833, Seba Smith (as Jack Downing), The life and writings of Major Jack Downing, of Downingville, away down East in the State of Maine, Lilly; Wait; Colman & Holden, page 176:",
"text": "When I first told 'em how the jig was up with us, that the British were going to have the land, without any fighting about it, I never see fellows so mad before in my life, unless it was Major Eaton at Washington when he sot out to flog Mr. Ingham.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "1920, Champ Clark, My Quarter Century of American Politics, Harper & brothers, page 96:",
"text": "After I had returned home in the spring of 1893 from Washington, where I saw so many gray-haired men who had held high elective office begging for the crumbs from Cleveland's table, I gave my wife an account of what I observed, and told her that when the jig was up for me I would hasten back to Missouri to begin the practice of law once more and be a man among men.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2007, Mary Newport, in Jerry Newport and Mary Newport, Mozart and the Whale: An Asperger's Love Story, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN, page 248:",
"text": "The universe works in strange ways: just when you think the jig is up, you get a second chance.",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"An expression used to mean \"We have been caught out and have no defense\", or if spoken to a person who has just been found out as the perpetrator of an offense, where it means \"You've been discovered\"."
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(Australia, New Zealand, US, idiomatic) An expression used to mean \"We have been caught out and have no defense\", or if spoken to a person who has just been found out as the perpetrator of an offense, where it means \"You've been discovered\"."
],
"tags": [
"Australia",
"New-Zealand",
"US",
"idiomatic"
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]
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"synonyms": [
{
"word": "gotcha"
},
{
"word": "the game is up"
},
{
"word": "sussed"
},
{
"word": "jig's up"
},
{
"word": "one's jig is up"
},
{
"word": "one's jig's up"
},
{
"word": "the jig's up"
}
],
"translations": [
{
"code": "es",
"lang": "Spanish",
"sense": "Translations",
"word": "se acabó el embuste"
},
{
"code": "es",
"lang": "Spanish",
"sense": "Translations",
"word": "se destapó la olla"
},
{
"code": "es",
"lang": "Spanish",
"sense": "Translations",
"word": "se descubrió el pastel"
},
{
"code": "es",
"lang": "Spanish",
"sense": "Translations",
"word": "se terminó el juego"
},
{
"code": "es",
"lang": "Spanish",
"sense": "Translations",
"word": "la fiesta se acabó"
}
],
"word": "the jig is up"
}
Download raw JSONL data for the jig is up meaning in English (3.7kB)
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.
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