wing and prayer in English

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{
  "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": "87 13",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "86 14",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "94 6",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "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"
}

[Show JSON for raw wiktextract data ▼] [Hide JSON for raw wiktextract data ▲]

{
  "categories": [
    "English countable nouns",
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English nouns",
    "Pages with 1 entry",
    "Pages with entries"
  ],
  "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 2025-03-01 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-02-21 using wiktextract (7c21d10 and f2e72e5). 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.

"wing and prayer" meaning in English

Noun