See the world and his wife in All languages combined, or Wiktionary
Download JSON data for the world and his wife meaning in English (2.8kB)
{
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "p"
},
"expansion": "the world and his wife pl (plural only)",
"name": "en-noun"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "noun",
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "Australian English",
"parents": [],
"source": "w"
},
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "British English",
"parents": [],
"source": "w"
},
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "English hyperboles",
"parents": [],
"source": "w"
},
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "English pluralia tantum",
"parents": [
"Pluralia tantum",
"Nouns",
"Lemmas"
],
"source": "w"
}
],
"examples": [
{
"text": "The world and his wife were at the opening – we could barely move."
},
{
"text": "1957 July 4, General Secretary, The Textile Institute, A Guide to Careers: No. 32: Textile Technology, New Scientist, page 42,\nThe world and his wife are the customers for whom the textile industry supplies the greatest necessity next to food, and some of the greatest luxuries."
},
{
"ref": "1986 April, Jessica Berens, “Scots on the Rocks”, in Spin, page 29",
"text": "The punk explosion of 1977 prompted the world and his wife to pick up guitars, just as they had grabbed washboards in the skiffle era 20 years before.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"text": "1972 (1905), Natsume Sōseki, Aiko Ito, Graeme Wilson (translators), I Am a Cat (吾輩は猫である), Volume 2, 2002, combined edition, page 187,\n“ […] But they have to consider what the world and his wife will say, and when dealing with the world one simply cannot be too careful.”"
},
{
"ref": "1998, Kasey Michaels, Indiscreet, published 2000, page 229",
"text": "Why not just hire a crier to go around the city, telling all the world and his wife — all the world and our wives — we had our turns riding Connie to hounds?",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"text": "2001, advertisement, quoted in 2001, Guy Cook, The Discourse of Advertising, page 112,\nGripping stuff, Subaru four-wheel drive. The world and his wife′s favourite in fact."
}
],
"glosses": [
"Everyone; a great crowd; a jumbled assortment of people."
],
"id": "en-the_world_and_his_wife-en-noun-CJ-n1fX4",
"links": [
[
"Everyone",
"everyone"
],
[
"jumbled",
"jumbled"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(hyperbolic, chiefly UK, Australia) Everyone; a great crowd; a jumbled assortment of people."
],
"synonyms": [
{
"word": "all the world and Little Billing"
},
{
"word": "all the world and his wife"
}
],
"tags": [
"Australia",
"UK",
"excessive",
"plural",
"plural-only"
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"audio": "en-au-the world and his wife.ogg",
"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/8/87/En-au-the_world_and_his_wife.ogg/En-au-the_world_and_his_wife.ogg.mp3",
"ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/87/En-au-the_world_and_his_wife.ogg",
"tags": [
"Australia"
],
"text": "Audio (AU)"
}
],
"word": "the world and his wife"
}
{
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "p"
},
"expansion": "the world and his wife pl (plural only)",
"name": "en-noun"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "noun",
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
"Australian English",
"British English",
"English hyperboles",
"English lemmas",
"English multiword terms",
"English nouns",
"English pluralia tantum",
"English terms with audio links",
"English terms with quotations"
],
"examples": [
{
"text": "The world and his wife were at the opening – we could barely move."
},
{
"text": "1957 July 4, General Secretary, The Textile Institute, A Guide to Careers: No. 32: Textile Technology, New Scientist, page 42,\nThe world and his wife are the customers for whom the textile industry supplies the greatest necessity next to food, and some of the greatest luxuries."
},
{
"ref": "1986 April, Jessica Berens, “Scots on the Rocks”, in Spin, page 29",
"text": "The punk explosion of 1977 prompted the world and his wife to pick up guitars, just as they had grabbed washboards in the skiffle era 20 years before.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"text": "1972 (1905), Natsume Sōseki, Aiko Ito, Graeme Wilson (translators), I Am a Cat (吾輩は猫である), Volume 2, 2002, combined edition, page 187,\n“ […] But they have to consider what the world and his wife will say, and when dealing with the world one simply cannot be too careful.”"
},
{
"ref": "1998, Kasey Michaels, Indiscreet, published 2000, page 229",
"text": "Why not just hire a crier to go around the city, telling all the world and his wife — all the world and our wives — we had our turns riding Connie to hounds?",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"text": "2001, advertisement, quoted in 2001, Guy Cook, The Discourse of Advertising, page 112,\nGripping stuff, Subaru four-wheel drive. The world and his wife′s favourite in fact."
}
],
"glosses": [
"Everyone; a great crowd; a jumbled assortment of people."
],
"links": [
[
"Everyone",
"everyone"
],
[
"jumbled",
"jumbled"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(hyperbolic, chiefly UK, Australia) Everyone; a great crowd; a jumbled assortment of people."
],
"synonyms": [
{
"word": "all the world and Little Billing"
}
],
"tags": [
"Australia",
"UK",
"excessive",
"plural",
"plural-only"
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"audio": "en-au-the world and his wife.ogg",
"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/8/87/En-au-the_world_and_his_wife.ogg/En-au-the_world_and_his_wife.ogg.mp3",
"ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/87/En-au-the_world_and_his_wife.ogg",
"tags": [
"Australia"
],
"text": "Audio (AU)"
}
],
"synonyms": [
{
"word": "all the world and his wife"
}
],
"word": "the world and his wife"
}
This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-04-17 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-04-01 using wiktextract (0b52755 and 5cb0836). 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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