"welfare queen" meaning in English

See welfare queen in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Forms: welfare queens [plural]
Etymology: 1970s, popularized during Ronald Reagan's 1976 presidential campaign, but not used by Reagan himself. Head templates: {{en-noun}} welfare queen (plural welfare queens)
  1. (US, derogatory) A woman collecting welfare, seen as doing so out of laziness, rather than genuine need. Wikipedia link: Ronald Reagan, Ronald Reagan 1976 presidential campaign, welfare queen Tags: US, derogatory Categories (topical): People Related terms: welfare bum, welfare parasite

Inflected forms

Download JSON data for welfare queen meaning in English (3.1kB)

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  "etymology_text": "1970s, popularized during Ronald Reagan's 1976 presidential campaign, but not used by Reagan himself.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "welfare queens",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
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      "expansion": "welfare queen (plural welfare queens)",
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  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
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          "parents": [
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      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1976 February 29, “‘Welfare Queen’ Loses Her Cadillac Limousine”, in The New York Times, →ISSN",
          "text": "Miss Taylor, who is 40 years old, has been called Illinois’ “welfare queen” for allegedly defrauding Illinois and other states out of welfare payments while using a number of aliases.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1994, Lisa Jones, Bulletproof Diva: Tales of Race, Sex, and Hair, Anchor Books, published 1995",
          "text": "Martin isn't a typecast welfare queen sucking the nation dry, as Thomas seemed to suggest, but a single woman like his own mother, who worked low-paying jobs without benefits to support her family and turned to relatives for help.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1994, Marian Wright Edelman, Measure of Success: A Letter to My Children and Yours, Beacon Press, published 1994, page 113",
          "text": "Welfare queens can't hold a candle to corporate kings in raiding the public purse.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2008, Earl Sewell, If I Were Your Boyfriend, Kimani TRU, published 2008, page 125",
          "text": "[…] You need to go on back to the ghetto and make a bunch of ghetto babies and live off of welfare. I heard that you and your mama were welfare queens.”",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A woman collecting welfare, seen as doing so out of laziness, rather than genuine need."
      ],
      "id": "en-welfare_queen-en-noun-wY5NG31y",
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        [
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        ],
        [
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      "raw_glosses": [
        "(US, derogatory) A woman collecting welfare, seen as doing so out of laziness, rather than genuine need."
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "word": "welfare bum"
        },
        {
          "word": "welfare parasite"
        }
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        "Ronald Reagan 1976 presidential campaign",
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    }
  ],
  "word": "welfare queen"
}
{
  "etymology_text": "1970s, popularized during Ronald Reagan's 1976 presidential campaign, but not used by Reagan himself.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "welfare queens",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
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  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "welfare bum"
    },
    {
      "word": "welfare parasite"
    }
  ],
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      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1976 February 29, “‘Welfare Queen’ Loses Her Cadillac Limousine”, in The New York Times, →ISSN",
          "text": "Miss Taylor, who is 40 years old, has been called Illinois’ “welfare queen” for allegedly defrauding Illinois and other states out of welfare payments while using a number of aliases.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1994, Lisa Jones, Bulletproof Diva: Tales of Race, Sex, and Hair, Anchor Books, published 1995",
          "text": "Martin isn't a typecast welfare queen sucking the nation dry, as Thomas seemed to suggest, but a single woman like his own mother, who worked low-paying jobs without benefits to support her family and turned to relatives for help.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1994, Marian Wright Edelman, Measure of Success: A Letter to My Children and Yours, Beacon Press, published 1994, page 113",
          "text": "Welfare queens can't hold a candle to corporate kings in raiding the public purse.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2008, Earl Sewell, If I Were Your Boyfriend, Kimani TRU, published 2008, page 125",
          "text": "[…] You need to go on back to the ghetto and make a bunch of ghetto babies and live off of welfare. I heard that you and your mama were welfare queens.”",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A woman collecting welfare, seen as doing so out of laziness, rather than genuine need."
      ],
      "links": [
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          "derogatory",
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        ],
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        [
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        [
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        "(US, derogatory) A woman collecting welfare, seen as doing so out of laziness, rather than genuine need."
      ],
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      ],
      "wikipedia": [
        "Ronald Reagan",
        "Ronald Reagan 1976 presidential campaign",
        "welfare queen"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "welfare queen"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-06 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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