"who's on first" meaning in English

{
  "etymology_text": "From \"Who's on First?\", a comic routine from 1930s vaudeville made famous by Abbott and Costello, in which two people discussing a baseball team become confused by names such as \"Who\" and \"What\".",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "who's on firsts",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "Who's on First",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "who's-on-first",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "who's on first (plural who's on firsts)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              116,
              131
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "1965, Saturday Review:",
          "text": "This pride of sponsorship, rather than pride of rating, seems to have been lost in the welter of decimal points and who's-on-firsts.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              130,
              145
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "2009 October 11, Caroline Hax, “Dad's views threaten family peace”, in Times Union:",
          "text": "With that, you'll know she knows how you feel — which relieves you of the supposed-tos, the what-ifs, the what's-my-moves and the who's-on-firsts, and frees you just to see how it all turns out.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              51,
              65
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "2010, Antonia Everett, Cruel Beauty: Confessions of a Dominatrix, John Mendelsohn, →ISBN:",
          "text": "“Goddess, Mistress. I'm sorry, Mistress.” I felt a who's-on-first moment coming on.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              105,
              119
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "2013, Martha P. Nochimson, David Lynch Swerves: Uncertainty from Lost Highway to Inland Empire, University of Texas Press, →ISBN:",
          "text": "But Rose interprets the remark as a statement that the girl is having a party herself, which leads to a “Who's on first?” comedy of errors.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              5,
              20
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "2013, Simon Pont, Digital State: How the Internet is Changing Everything, Kogan Page Publishers, →ISBN, page 64:",
          "text": "This 'who's on first' conversation continued, both of us getting more and more frustrated than the other, until it hit me.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              54,
              69
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "2015, Steven Moore, William Gaddis: Expanded Edition, Bloomsbury Publishing USA, →ISBN, page 150:",
          "text": "(The Japanese car model is a Sosumi, as we learn in a Who's on First? comic exchange; Gribble recently dealt with a case involving an Isuyu.)",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A situation in which confusion arises due to homophones and similar misunderstandings."
      ],
      "id": "en-who's_on_first-en-noun-MCppAMUW",
      "links": [
        [
          "homophone",
          "homophone"
        ],
        [
          "misunderstanding",
          "misunderstanding"
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "who's on first"
}

{
  "etymology_text": "From \"Who's on First?\", a comic routine from 1930s vaudeville made famous by Abbott and Costello, in which two people discussing a baseball team become confused by names such as \"Who\" and \"What\".",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "who's on firsts",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "Who's on First",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "who's-on-first",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "who's on first (plural who's on firsts)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English countable nouns",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English nouns",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries",
        "Quotation templates to be cleaned"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              116,
              131
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "1965, Saturday Review:",
          "text": "This pride of sponsorship, rather than pride of rating, seems to have been lost in the welter of decimal points and who's-on-firsts.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              130,
              145
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "2009 October 11, Caroline Hax, “Dad's views threaten family peace”, in Times Union:",
          "text": "With that, you'll know she knows how you feel — which relieves you of the supposed-tos, the what-ifs, the what's-my-moves and the who's-on-firsts, and frees you just to see how it all turns out.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              51,
              65
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "2010, Antonia Everett, Cruel Beauty: Confessions of a Dominatrix, John Mendelsohn, →ISBN:",
          "text": "“Goddess, Mistress. I'm sorry, Mistress.” I felt a who's-on-first moment coming on.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              105,
              119
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "2013, Martha P. Nochimson, David Lynch Swerves: Uncertainty from Lost Highway to Inland Empire, University of Texas Press, →ISBN:",
          "text": "But Rose interprets the remark as a statement that the girl is having a party herself, which leads to a “Who's on first?” comedy of errors.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              5,
              20
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "2013, Simon Pont, Digital State: How the Internet is Changing Everything, Kogan Page Publishers, →ISBN, page 64:",
          "text": "This 'who's on first' conversation continued, both of us getting more and more frustrated than the other, until it hit me.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              54,
              69
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "2015, Steven Moore, William Gaddis: Expanded Edition, Bloomsbury Publishing USA, →ISBN, page 150:",
          "text": "(The Japanese car model is a Sosumi, as we learn in a Who's on First? comic exchange; Gribble recently dealt with a case involving an Isuyu.)",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A situation in which confusion arises due to homophones and similar misunderstandings."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "homophone",
          "homophone"
        ],
        [
          "misunderstanding",
          "misunderstanding"
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "who's on first"
}