"wing and prayer" meaning in English

See wing and prayer in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Forms: wings and prayers [plural]
Etymology: From the earlier and more common phrase on a wing and a prayer. Etymology templates: {{m|en|on a wing and a prayer}} on a wing and a prayer Head templates: {{en-noun|wings and prayers}} wing and prayer (plural wings and prayers)
  1. A precarious situation; a situation whose successful outcome is hoped for but uncertain.
    Sense id: en-wing_and_prayer-en-noun-aHgzSTnR Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 86 14
  2. An approach to addressing a problem whose effectiveness is doubtful.
    Sense id: en-wing_and_prayer-en-noun-LHTHv33A

Download JSON data for wing and prayer meaning in English (1.5kB)

{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "on a wing and a prayer"
      },
      "expansion": "on a wing and a prayer",
      "name": "m"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From the earlier and more common phrase on a wing and a prayer.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "wings and prayers",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "wings and prayers"
      },
      "expansion": "wing and prayer (plural wings and prayers)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "86 14",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "His sudden career change was a bit of a wing and prayer.",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A precarious situation; a situation whose successful outcome is hoped for but uncertain."
      ],
      "id": "en-wing_and_prayer-en-noun-aHgzSTnR",
      "links": [
        [
          "precarious",
          "precarious"
        ],
        [
          "situation",
          "situation"
        ],
        [
          "successful",
          "successful"
        ],
        [
          "outcome",
          "outcome"
        ],
        [
          "hope",
          "hope"
        ],
        [
          "uncertain",
          "uncertain"
        ]
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "The candidate’s speech had nothing to offer but wings and prayers.",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "An approach to addressing a problem whose effectiveness is doubtful."
      ],
      "id": "en-wing_and_prayer-en-noun-LHTHv33A",
      "links": [
        [
          "approach",
          "approach"
        ],
        [
          "address",
          "address"
        ],
        [
          "problem",
          "problem"
        ],
        [
          "effectiveness",
          "effectiveness"
        ],
        [
          "doubtful",
          "doubtful"
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "wing and prayer"
}
{
  "categories": [
    "English countable nouns",
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English nouns"
  ],
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "on a wing and a prayer"
      },
      "expansion": "on a wing and a prayer",
      "name": "m"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From the earlier and more common phrase on a wing and a prayer.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "wings and prayers",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "wings and prayers"
      },
      "expansion": "wing and prayer (plural wings and prayers)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with usage examples"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "His sudden career change was a bit of a wing and prayer.",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A precarious situation; a situation whose successful outcome is hoped for but uncertain."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "precarious",
          "precarious"
        ],
        [
          "situation",
          "situation"
        ],
        [
          "successful",
          "successful"
        ],
        [
          "outcome",
          "outcome"
        ],
        [
          "hope",
          "hope"
        ],
        [
          "uncertain",
          "uncertain"
        ]
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with usage examples"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "The candidate’s speech had nothing to offer but wings and prayers.",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "An approach to addressing a problem whose effectiveness is doubtful."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "approach",
          "approach"
        ],
        [
          "address",
          "address"
        ],
        [
          "problem",
          "problem"
        ],
        [
          "effectiveness",
          "effectiveness"
        ],
        [
          "doubtful",
          "doubtful"
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "wing and prayer"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-04-26 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-04-21 using wiktextract (93a6c53 and 21a9316). 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.