"wife-beating question" meaning in English

See wife-beating question in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Audio: en-au-wife-beating question.ogg [Australia] Forms: wife-beating questions [plural]
Etymology: From wife-beating + question, with reference to the oft-cited example "Have you stopped beating your wife?". Etymology templates: {{m|en|wife-beating}} wife-beating, {{m|en|question}} question Head templates: {{en-noun|head=wife-beating question}} wife-beating question (plural wife-beating questions)
  1. (rhetoric) A question that presupposes some controversial premise, such that it cannot be directly answered without incriminating oneself or, at least, unintentionally conceding a point; a loaded question. Wikipedia link: loaded question Tags: rhetoric Categories (topical): Rhetoric Related terms: trick question, leading question Translations (loaded question): 另有用意的問題 (Chinese Mandarin), 另有用意的问题 (lìngyǒu yòngyì de wèntí) (Chinese Mandarin), "joko olet lakannut hakkaamasta vaimoasi" -kysymys (Finnish), Fangfrage [feminine] (German), podchwytliwe pytanie [neuter] (Polish), провокацио́нный вопро́с (provokaciónnyj voprós) [masculine] (Russian), вопро́с ти́па «Вы уже́ переста́ли пить конья́к по утра́м?» (alt: voprós típa «Vy užé perestáli pitʹ konʹják po utrám?») (Russian), pregunta capciosa [feminine] (Spanish)
    Sense id: en-wife-beating_question-en-noun-KBtixq7L Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header

Inflected forms

Download JSON data for wife-beating question meaning in English (4.1kB)

{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "wife-beating"
      },
      "expansion": "wife-beating",
      "name": "m"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "question"
      },
      "expansion": "question",
      "name": "m"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From wife-beating + question, with reference to the oft-cited example \"Have you stopped beating your wife?\".",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "wife-beating questions",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "head": "wife-beating question"
      },
      "expansion": "wife-beating question (plural wife-beating questions)",
      "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": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Rhetoric",
          "orig": "en:Rhetoric",
          "parents": [
            "Language",
            "Communication",
            "All topics",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1984, British House of Commons debate, Hansard vol. 70, 20 Dec 1984",
          "text": "Mr. [Tony] Banks: When the Leader of the House sees his right hon. friend the Prime Minister, will he ask her to come to the Dispatch Box and condemn picket line violence by the police?\nMr. [John] Biffen: That is the most obvious and plain wife-beating question that I have ever heard asked."
        },
        {
          "ref": "2002 Sep, Christopher Hitchens, “Martin Amis: Lightness at Midnight”, in The Atlantic",
          "text": "Amis also recounts some aggressive questions allegedly put by him to me and to James Fenton in our (James's and my) Trotskyist years, when all three of us were colleagues at the New Statesman. The questions are so plainly wife-beating questions, and the answers so clearly intended to pacify the aggressor by offering a mocking agreement [...].",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A question that presupposes some controversial premise, such that it cannot be directly answered without incriminating oneself or, at least, unintentionally conceding a point; a loaded question."
      ],
      "id": "en-wife-beating_question-en-noun-KBtixq7L",
      "links": [
        [
          "rhetoric",
          "rhetoric"
        ],
        [
          "presupposes",
          "presupposes"
        ],
        [
          "premise",
          "premise"
        ],
        [
          "incriminating",
          "incriminate"
        ],
        [
          "unintentional",
          "unintentional"
        ],
        [
          "conceding",
          "concede"
        ],
        [
          "loaded",
          "loaded"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(rhetoric) A question that presupposes some controversial premise, such that it cannot be directly answered without incriminating oneself or, at least, unintentionally conceding a point; a loaded question."
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "word": "trick question"
        },
        {
          "word": "leading question"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "rhetoric"
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "code": "cmn",
          "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
          "sense": "loaded question",
          "word": "另有用意的問題"
        },
        {
          "code": "cmn",
          "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
          "roman": "lìngyǒu yòngyì de wèntí",
          "sense": "loaded question",
          "word": "另有用意的问题"
        },
        {
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "loaded question",
          "word": "\"joko olet lakannut hakkaamasta vaimoasi\" -kysymys"
        },
        {
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "sense": "loaded question",
          "tags": [
            "feminine"
          ],
          "word": "Fangfrage"
        },
        {
          "code": "pl",
          "lang": "Polish",
          "sense": "loaded question",
          "tags": [
            "neuter"
          ],
          "word": "podchwytliwe pytanie"
        },
        {
          "code": "ru",
          "lang": "Russian",
          "roman": "provokaciónnyj voprós",
          "sense": "loaded question",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "провокацио́нный вопро́с"
        },
        {
          "alt": "voprós típa «Vy užé perestáli pitʹ konʹják po utrám?»",
          "code": "ru",
          "lang": "Russian",
          "sense": "loaded question",
          "word": "вопро́с ти́па «Вы уже́ переста́ли пить конья́к по утра́м?»"
        },
        {
          "code": "es",
          "lang": "Spanish",
          "sense": "loaded question",
          "tags": [
            "feminine"
          ],
          "word": "pregunta capciosa"
        }
      ],
      "wikipedia": [
        "loaded question"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "en-au-wife-beating question.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/a/a7/En-au-wife-beating_question.ogg/En-au-wife-beating_question.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a7/En-au-wife-beating_question.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "word": "wife-beating question"
}
{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "wife-beating"
      },
      "expansion": "wife-beating",
      "name": "m"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "question"
      },
      "expansion": "question",
      "name": "m"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From wife-beating + question, with reference to the oft-cited example \"Have you stopped beating your wife?\".",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "wife-beating questions",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "head": "wife-beating question"
      },
      "expansion": "wife-beating question (plural wife-beating questions)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "trick question"
    },
    {
      "word": "leading question"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English countable nouns",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English nouns",
        "English terms with audio links",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "en:Rhetoric"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1984, British House of Commons debate, Hansard vol. 70, 20 Dec 1984",
          "text": "Mr. [Tony] Banks: When the Leader of the House sees his right hon. friend the Prime Minister, will he ask her to come to the Dispatch Box and condemn picket line violence by the police?\nMr. [John] Biffen: That is the most obvious and plain wife-beating question that I have ever heard asked."
        },
        {
          "ref": "2002 Sep, Christopher Hitchens, “Martin Amis: Lightness at Midnight”, in The Atlantic",
          "text": "Amis also recounts some aggressive questions allegedly put by him to me and to James Fenton in our (James's and my) Trotskyist years, when all three of us were colleagues at the New Statesman. The questions are so plainly wife-beating questions, and the answers so clearly intended to pacify the aggressor by offering a mocking agreement [...].",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A question that presupposes some controversial premise, such that it cannot be directly answered without incriminating oneself or, at least, unintentionally conceding a point; a loaded question."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "rhetoric",
          "rhetoric"
        ],
        [
          "presupposes",
          "presupposes"
        ],
        [
          "premise",
          "premise"
        ],
        [
          "incriminating",
          "incriminate"
        ],
        [
          "unintentional",
          "unintentional"
        ],
        [
          "conceding",
          "concede"
        ],
        [
          "loaded",
          "loaded"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(rhetoric) A question that presupposes some controversial premise, such that it cannot be directly answered without incriminating oneself or, at least, unintentionally conceding a point; a loaded question."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "rhetoric"
      ],
      "wikipedia": [
        "loaded question"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "en-au-wife-beating question.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/a/a7/En-au-wife-beating_question.ogg/En-au-wife-beating_question.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a7/En-au-wife-beating_question.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "cmn",
      "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
      "sense": "loaded question",
      "word": "另有用意的問題"
    },
    {
      "code": "cmn",
      "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
      "roman": "lìngyǒu yòngyì de wèntí",
      "sense": "loaded question",
      "word": "另有用意的问题"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "loaded question",
      "word": "\"joko olet lakannut hakkaamasta vaimoasi\" -kysymys"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "loaded question",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "Fangfrage"
    },
    {
      "code": "pl",
      "lang": "Polish",
      "sense": "loaded question",
      "tags": [
        "neuter"
      ],
      "word": "podchwytliwe pytanie"
    },
    {
      "code": "ru",
      "lang": "Russian",
      "roman": "provokaciónnyj voprós",
      "sense": "loaded question",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "провокацио́нный вопро́с"
    },
    {
      "alt": "voprós típa «Vy užé perestáli pitʹ konʹják po utrám?»",
      "code": "ru",
      "lang": "Russian",
      "sense": "loaded question",
      "word": "вопро́с ти́па «Вы уже́ переста́ли пить конья́к по утра́м?»"
    },
    {
      "code": "es",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "sense": "loaded question",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "pregunta capciosa"
    }
  ],
  "word": "wife-beating question"
}

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.

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.