"to the quick" meaning in English

See to the quick in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Prepositional phrase

Head templates: {{head|en|prepositional phrase|head=}} to the quick, {{en-PP}} to the quick
  1. To the level of living tissue.
    Sense id: en-to_the_quick-en-prep_phrase-MK09G9C1 Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 89 11 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 95 5 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 95 5
  2. Very deeply; at one's most sensitive level of feeling.
    Sense id: en-to_the_quick-en-prep_phrase-3QwDuOiU
The following are not (yet) sense-disambiguated
Related terms: cut to the quick
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        "1": "en",
        "2": "prepositional phrase",
        "head": ""
      },
      "expansion": "to the quick",
      "name": "head"
    },
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "to the quick",
      "name": "en-PP"
    }
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  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "prep_phrase",
  "related": [
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      "_dis1": "0 0",
      "word": "cut to the quick"
    }
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  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "89 11",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
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            "Entry maintenance"
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          "source": "w+disamb"
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          "_dis": "95 5",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1904, Jack London, chapter 39, in The Sea-Wolf (Macmillan’s Standard Library), New York, N.Y.: Grosset & Dunlap, →OCLC:",
          "text": "Blood dripped from every finger-end, while the nails were broken to the quick.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To the level of living tissue."
      ],
      "id": "en-to_the_quick-en-prep_phrase-MK09G9C1",
      "links": [
        [
          "level",
          "level"
        ],
        [
          "living",
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        ],
        [
          "tissue",
          "tissue"
        ]
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "c. 1588–1593 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Lamentable Tragedy of Titus Andronicus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene iv]:",
          "text": "Titus, I have touched thee to the quick.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1749, Henry Fielding, chapter 14, in Tom Jones, a Foundling:",
          "text": "This false evidence . . . stung me to the quick, and raised an indignation scarce conceivable.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1837, Charlotte Brontë, chapter 37, in Jane Eyre:",
          "text": "The powerlessness of the strong man touched my heart to the quick.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Very deeply; at one's most sensitive level of feeling."
      ],
      "id": "en-to_the_quick-en-prep_phrase-3QwDuOiU",
      "links": [
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          "deeply",
          "deeply"
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          "sensitive"
        ],
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          "feeling",
          "feeling"
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "to the quick"
}
{
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    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English prepositional phrases",
    "Pages with 1 entry",
    "Pages with entries"
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  "head_templates": [
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      "word": "cut to the quick"
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          "ref": "1904, Jack London, chapter 39, in The Sea-Wolf (Macmillan’s Standard Library), New York, N.Y.: Grosset & Dunlap, →OCLC:",
          "text": "Blood dripped from every finger-end, while the nails were broken to the quick.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To the level of living tissue."
      ],
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          "level"
        ],
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        ],
        [
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        ]
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
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        "Quotation templates to be cleaned"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "c. 1588–1593 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Lamentable Tragedy of Titus Andronicus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene iv]:",
          "text": "Titus, I have touched thee to the quick.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1749, Henry Fielding, chapter 14, in Tom Jones, a Foundling:",
          "text": "This false evidence . . . stung me to the quick, and raised an indignation scarce conceivable.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1837, Charlotte Brontë, chapter 37, in Jane Eyre:",
          "text": "The powerlessness of the strong man touched my heart to the quick.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Very deeply; at one's most sensitive level of feeling."
      ],
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          "deeply",
          "deeply"
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  ],
  "word": "to the quick"
}

Download raw JSONL data for to the quick 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.