"thin end of the wedge" meaning in English

See thin end of the wedge in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Audio: En-au-thin end of the wedge.ogg Forms: the thin end of the wedge [canonical]
Head templates: {{head|en|noun|head=the thin end of the wedge}} the thin end of the wedge
  1. (idiomatic) Something that if allowed or accepted to a small degree would lead to systematic encroachment. Tags: idiomatic Synonyms: small end of the wedge, thin edge of the wedge Related terms: give them an inch and they'll take a mile
    Sense id: en-thin_end_of_the_wedge-en-noun-6Q0ZXgIp Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries

Alternative forms

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "the thin end of the wedge",
      "tags": [
        "canonical"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "noun",
        "head": "the thin end of the wedge"
      },
      "expansion": "the thin end of the wedge",
      "name": "head"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "The MP told parliament that legalising cannabis would be the thin end of the wedge.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2018 August 14, April Stroud, Making Sense of Land Law, Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBN:",
          "text": "This is known as the 'thin end of the wedge' argument raised by people who don't want to lose the protection of restrictive covenants. The 'thin end of the wedge' means that when you drive a wedge into something, you use the thin end first because it's easier than using the thick end.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Something that if allowed or accepted to a small degree would lead to systematic encroachment."
      ],
      "id": "en-thin_end_of_the_wedge-en-noun-6Q0ZXgIp",
      "links": [
        [
          "allowed",
          "allowed"
        ],
        [
          "accepted",
          "accepted"
        ],
        [
          "systematic",
          "systematic"
        ],
        [
          "encroachment",
          "encroachment"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) Something that if allowed or accepted to a small degree would lead to systematic encroachment."
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "word": "give them an inch and they'll take a mile"
        }
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "small end of the wedge"
        },
        {
          "word": "thin edge of the wedge"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "En-au-thin end of the wedge.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/b/b2/En-au-thin_end_of_the_wedge.ogg/En-au-thin_end_of_the_wedge.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b2/En-au-thin_end_of_the_wedge.ogg"
    }
  ],
  "word": "thin end of the wedge"
}
{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "the thin end of the wedge",
      "tags": [
        "canonical"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "noun",
        "head": "the thin end of the wedge"
      },
      "expansion": "the thin end of the wedge",
      "name": "head"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "give them an inch and they'll take a mile"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English idioms",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English nouns",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English terms with usage examples",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "The MP told parliament that legalising cannabis would be the thin end of the wedge.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2018 August 14, April Stroud, Making Sense of Land Law, Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBN:",
          "text": "This is known as the 'thin end of the wedge' argument raised by people who don't want to lose the protection of restrictive covenants. The 'thin end of the wedge' means that when you drive a wedge into something, you use the thin end first because it's easier than using the thick end.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Something that if allowed or accepted to a small degree would lead to systematic encroachment."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "allowed",
          "allowed"
        ],
        [
          "accepted",
          "accepted"
        ],
        [
          "systematic",
          "systematic"
        ],
        [
          "encroachment",
          "encroachment"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) Something that if allowed or accepted to a small degree would lead to systematic encroachment."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "En-au-thin end of the wedge.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/b/b2/En-au-thin_end_of_the_wedge.ogg/En-au-thin_end_of_the_wedge.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b2/En-au-thin_end_of_the_wedge.ogg"
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "small end of the wedge"
    },
    {
      "word": "thin edge of the wedge"
    }
  ],
  "word": "thin end of the wedge"
}

Download raw JSONL data for thin end of the wedge meaning in English (1.9kB)


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.

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.