"throw things at the wall and see what sticks" meaning in English

See throw things at the wall and see what sticks in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Verb

Forms: throws things at the wall and sees what sticks [present, singular, third-person], throwing things at the wall and seeing what sticks [participle, present], threw things at the wall and saw what sticks [past], thrown things at the wall and seen what sticks [participle, past]
Etymology: From the proverb throw enough mud at the wall, some of it will stick. Etymology templates: {{m|en|throw enough mud at the wall, some of it will stick}} throw enough mud at the wall, some of it will stick Head templates: {{en-verb|throw<,,threw,thrown> things at the wall and see<,,saw,seen> what sticks}} throw things at the wall and see what sticks (third-person singular simple present throws things at the wall and sees what sticks, present participle throwing things at the wall and seeing what sticks, simple past threw things at the wall and saw what sticks, past participle thrown things at the wall and seen what sticks)
  1. To experiment in a haphazard or random manner with the hope that some amount of success may be encountered. Derived forms: what sticks Related terms: throw spaghetti at the wall
    Sense id: en-throw_things_at_the_wall_and_see_what_sticks-en-verb-k4xpEDfR Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header

Download JSON data for throw things at the wall and see what sticks meaning in English (1.8kB)

{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "throw enough mud at the wall, some of it will stick"
      },
      "expansion": "throw enough mud at the wall, some of it will stick",
      "name": "m"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From the proverb throw enough mud at the wall, some of it will stick.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "throws things at the wall and sees what sticks",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "throwing things at the wall and seeing what sticks",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "threw things at the wall and saw what sticks",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "thrown things at the wall and seen what sticks",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "throw<,,threw,thrown> things at the wall and see<,,saw,seen> what sticks"
      },
      "expansion": "throw things at the wall and see what sticks (third-person singular simple present throws things at the wall and sees what sticks, present participle throwing things at the wall and seeing what sticks, simple past threw things at the wall and saw what sticks, past participle thrown things at the wall and seen what sticks)",
      "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"
        }
      ],
      "derived": [
        {
          "word": "what sticks"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To experiment in a haphazard or random manner with the hope that some amount of success may be encountered."
      ],
      "id": "en-throw_things_at_the_wall_and_see_what_sticks-en-verb-k4xpEDfR",
      "links": [
        [
          "experiment",
          "experiment"
        ],
        [
          "haphazard",
          "haphazard"
        ],
        [
          "random",
          "random"
        ],
        [
          "success",
          "success"
        ]
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "word": "throw spaghetti at the wall"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "throw things at the wall and see what sticks"
}

{
  "derived": [
    {
      "word": "what sticks"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "throw enough mud at the wall, some of it will stick"
      },
      "expansion": "throw enough mud at the wall, some of it will stick",
      "name": "m"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From the proverb throw enough mud at the wall, some of it will stick.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "throws things at the wall and sees what sticks",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "throwing things at the wall and seeing what sticks",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "threw things at the wall and saw what sticks",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "thrown things at the wall and seen what sticks",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "throw<,,threw,thrown> things at the wall and see<,,saw,seen> what sticks"
      },
      "expansion": "throw things at the wall and see what sticks (third-person singular simple present throws things at the wall and sees what sticks, present participle throwing things at the wall and seeing what sticks, simple past threw things at the wall and saw what sticks, past participle thrown things at the wall and seen what sticks)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "throw spaghetti at the wall"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English verbs"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To experiment in a haphazard or random manner with the hope that some amount of success may be encountered."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "experiment",
          "experiment"
        ],
        [
          "haphazard",
          "haphazard"
        ],
        [
          "random",
          "random"
        ],
        [
          "success",
          "success"
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "throw things at the wall and see what sticks"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-04-26 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-04-21 using wiktextract (93a6c53 and 21a9316). 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.