"walk on broken glass" meaning in English

See walk on broken glass in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Verb

Forms: walks on broken glass [present, singular, third-person], walking on broken glass [participle, present], walked on broken glass [participle, past], walked on broken glass [past]
Head templates: {{en-verb|*}} walk on broken glass (third-person singular simple present walks on broken glass, present participle walking on broken glass, simple past and past participle walked on broken glass)
  1. (idiomatic) To do everything possible to achieve something, even if it involves great risk or discomfort. Tags: idiomatic Synonyms: bend over backwards, go to great lengths, go to the ends of the earth, move heaven and earth, walk across broken glass, crawl on broken glass, crawl across broken glass Related terms: walk on eggshells
    Sense id: en-walk_on_broken_glass-en-verb-E9vl-~2O Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header

Download JSON data for walk on broken glass meaning in English (2.5kB)

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "walks on broken glass",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "walking on broken glass",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "walked on broken glass",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "walked on broken glass",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "*"
      },
      "expansion": "walk on broken glass (third-person singular simple present walks on broken glass, present participle walking on broken glass, simple past and past participle walked on broken glass)",
      "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"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2021 June 16, Ben Fisher, “Robert Page hails Gareth Bale’s courage after captain drives Wales to victory”, in The Guardian",
          "text": "We’ve got a lot of players not playing domestic football week in, week out. What is it? Is it the crest on their chest that makes them raise their game? It must be. It’s playing for Wales. It’s powerful and everybody would walk on broken glass to get into this squad. Credit goes to the players.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2022 November 15, George T. Conway III, “Trump is out for vengeance — and to protect himself from prosecution”, in The Washington Post",
          "text": "Trump won’t succeed, as his successive losses of the House, Senate, presidency and last week’s midterm results show. Too many Americans would crawl on broken glass to vote against him, no matter who his general election opponent may be. They have seen enough.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To do everything possible to achieve something, even if it involves great risk or discomfort."
      ],
      "id": "en-walk_on_broken_glass-en-verb-E9vl-~2O",
      "links": [
        [
          "do",
          "do"
        ],
        [
          "possible",
          "possible"
        ],
        [
          "achieve",
          "achieve"
        ],
        [
          "risk",
          "risk"
        ],
        [
          "discomfort",
          "discomfort"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) To do everything possible to achieve something, even if it involves great risk or discomfort."
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "word": "walk on eggshells"
        }
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "bend over backwards"
        },
        {
          "word": "go to great lengths"
        },
        {
          "word": "go to the ends of the earth"
        },
        {
          "word": "move heaven and earth"
        },
        {
          "word": "walk across broken glass"
        },
        {
          "word": "crawl on broken glass"
        },
        {
          "word": "crawl across broken glass"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "walk on broken glass"
}
{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "walks on broken glass",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "walking on broken glass",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "walked on broken glass",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "walked on broken glass",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "*"
      },
      "expansion": "walk on broken glass (third-person singular simple present walks on broken glass, present participle walking on broken glass, simple past and past participle walked on broken glass)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "walk on eggshells"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English idioms",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English verbs"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2021 June 16, Ben Fisher, “Robert Page hails Gareth Bale’s courage after captain drives Wales to victory”, in The Guardian",
          "text": "We’ve got a lot of players not playing domestic football week in, week out. What is it? Is it the crest on their chest that makes them raise their game? It must be. It’s playing for Wales. It’s powerful and everybody would walk on broken glass to get into this squad. Credit goes to the players.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2022 November 15, George T. Conway III, “Trump is out for vengeance — and to protect himself from prosecution”, in The Washington Post",
          "text": "Trump won’t succeed, as his successive losses of the House, Senate, presidency and last week’s midterm results show. Too many Americans would crawl on broken glass to vote against him, no matter who his general election opponent may be. They have seen enough.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To do everything possible to achieve something, even if it involves great risk or discomfort."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "do",
          "do"
        ],
        [
          "possible",
          "possible"
        ],
        [
          "achieve",
          "achieve"
        ],
        [
          "risk",
          "risk"
        ],
        [
          "discomfort",
          "discomfort"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) To do everything possible to achieve something, even if it involves great risk or discomfort."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "bend over backwards"
        },
        {
          "word": "go to great lengths"
        },
        {
          "word": "go to the ends of the earth"
        },
        {
          "word": "move heaven and earth"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "walk across broken glass"
    },
    {
      "word": "crawl on broken glass"
    },
    {
      "word": "crawl across broken glass"
    }
  ],
  "word": "walk on broken glass"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-03 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.

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