See thread the needle in All languages combined, or Wiktionary
Download JSON data for thread the needle meaning in English (3.0kB)
{
"forms": [
{
"form": "threads the needle",
"tags": [
"present",
"singular",
"third-person"
]
},
{
"form": "threading the needle",
"tags": [
"participle",
"present"
]
},
{
"form": "threaded the needle",
"tags": [
"participle",
"past"
]
},
{
"form": "threaded the needle",
"tags": [
"past"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "*"
},
"expansion": "thread the needle (third-person singular simple present threads the needle, present participle threading the needle, simple past and past participle threaded the needle)",
"name": "en-verb"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "verb",
"senses": [
{
"categories": [],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "2010, James C. Foster, Bong Hits 4 Jesus: A Perfect Constitutional Storm in Alaska's Capital, University of Alaska Press, published 2010, page 215",
"text": "Were I writing for the Court, I would seek to thread the needle between acknowledging Principal Morse's authority, on the one hand, while respecting student Frederick's rights, on the other.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2021 September 6, Zack Handlen, “Rick And Morty ends its fifth season looking for an escape hatch”, in AV Club",
"text": "It was likely any resolution was going to seem like an anti-climax, and I thought this reveal threaded the needle quite well.",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"To manage to find harmony or strike a balance between conflicting forces, interests, etc."
],
"id": "en-thread_the_needle-en-verb-9fbLecaI",
"links": [
[
"harmony",
"harmony"
],
[
"strike a balance",
"strike a balance"
],
[
"conflicting",
"conflicting"
],
[
"forces",
"forces"
],
[
"interests",
"interests"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(idiomatic) To manage to find harmony or strike a balance between conflicting forces, interests, etc."
],
"tags": [
"idiomatic"
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"audio": "En-au-thread the needle.ogg",
"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/b/b8/En-au-thread_the_needle.ogg/En-au-thread_the_needle.ogg.mp3",
"ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b8/En-au-thread_the_needle.ogg",
"tags": [
"Australia"
],
"text": "Audio (AU)"
}
],
"word": "thread the needle"
}
{
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "-"
},
"expansion": "thread the needle (uncountable)",
"name": "en-noun"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "noun",
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
{
"_dis": "91 9",
"kind": "other",
"name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
"parents": [
"Entries with incorrect language header",
"Entry maintenance"
],
"source": "w+disamb"
}
],
"glosses": [
"A game in which children stand in a row, joining hands, and in which the outer one, still holding their neighbor, runs between the others."
],
"id": "en-thread_the_needle-en-noun-MwKG2qxj",
"synonyms": [
{
"word": "thread needle"
}
],
"tags": [
"uncountable"
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"audio": "En-au-thread the needle.ogg",
"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/b/b8/En-au-thread_the_needle.ogg/En-au-thread_the_needle.ogg.mp3",
"ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b8/En-au-thread_the_needle.ogg",
"tags": [
"Australia"
],
"text": "Audio (AU)"
}
],
"word": "thread the needle"
}
{
"categories": [
"English entries with incorrect language header",
"English lemmas",
"English multiword terms",
"English nouns",
"English terms with audio links",
"English uncountable nouns",
"English verbs"
],
"forms": [
{
"form": "threads the needle",
"tags": [
"present",
"singular",
"third-person"
]
},
{
"form": "threading the needle",
"tags": [
"participle",
"present"
]
},
{
"form": "threaded the needle",
"tags": [
"participle",
"past"
]
},
{
"form": "threaded the needle",
"tags": [
"past"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "*"
},
"expansion": "thread the needle (third-person singular simple present threads the needle, present participle threading the needle, simple past and past participle threaded the needle)",
"name": "en-verb"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "verb",
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
"English idioms",
"English terms with quotations"
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "2010, James C. Foster, Bong Hits 4 Jesus: A Perfect Constitutional Storm in Alaska's Capital, University of Alaska Press, published 2010, page 215",
"text": "Were I writing for the Court, I would seek to thread the needle between acknowledging Principal Morse's authority, on the one hand, while respecting student Frederick's rights, on the other.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2021 September 6, Zack Handlen, “Rick And Morty ends its fifth season looking for an escape hatch”, in AV Club",
"text": "It was likely any resolution was going to seem like an anti-climax, and I thought this reveal threaded the needle quite well.",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"To manage to find harmony or strike a balance between conflicting forces, interests, etc."
],
"links": [
[
"harmony",
"harmony"
],
[
"strike a balance",
"strike a balance"
],
[
"conflicting",
"conflicting"
],
[
"forces",
"forces"
],
[
"interests",
"interests"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(idiomatic) To manage to find harmony or strike a balance between conflicting forces, interests, etc."
],
"tags": [
"idiomatic"
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"audio": "En-au-thread the needle.ogg",
"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/b/b8/En-au-thread_the_needle.ogg/En-au-thread_the_needle.ogg.mp3",
"ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b8/En-au-thread_the_needle.ogg",
"tags": [
"Australia"
],
"text": "Audio (AU)"
}
],
"word": "thread the needle"
}
{
"categories": [
"English entries with incorrect language header",
"English lemmas",
"English multiword terms",
"English nouns",
"English terms with audio links",
"English uncountable nouns",
"English verbs"
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "-"
},
"expansion": "thread the needle (uncountable)",
"name": "en-noun"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "noun",
"senses": [
{
"glosses": [
"A game in which children stand in a row, joining hands, and in which the outer one, still holding their neighbor, runs between the others."
],
"tags": [
"uncountable"
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"audio": "En-au-thread the needle.ogg",
"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/b/b8/En-au-thread_the_needle.ogg/En-au-thread_the_needle.ogg.mp3",
"ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b8/En-au-thread_the_needle.ogg",
"tags": [
"Australia"
],
"text": "Audio (AU)"
}
],
"synonyms": [
{
"word": "thread needle"
}
],
"word": "thread the needle"
}
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.