释义 |
styme, stime, n. Chiefly Sc. and north.|staɪm| Forms: 3–4, 7– stime, 5– styme, (9 steyme, stim). [Of obscure origin. The Icel. skíma (‘Fra dagmálum til nóns sá ekki skímu úti heldr en menn vǽru blindir,’ Isl. Ann. 254, c 1685) coincides in use with the Eng. word.] 1. In the phrase not to see a styme: to be unable to see at all.
a1300Cursor M. 19652 Noþer he ete þaa thre dais time, Ne he iwiss moght se a stime. c1475Henryson Poems III. 86 To kene þe self a styme it [the spirit] may nocht se, For stammeris [MS. scammeris] on eftir effectioun. a1568A. Scott Poems xxxiii. 23 Thow [Cupid] markis quhair nevir styme thow seis, Bot hittis be gaiss. 1635Jackson Creed viii. iv. 36 If a man cannot see (as we say) a stime, but with one eye, we account it no solecisme to say, hee hath lost the other. 1683[G. Meriton] Yorksh. Dial. 8 My Neen..are seay Gummy and Furr'd up sometime. I can nut leauke at 'th Leet, nor see a stime. 1785Burns There's naething like ii, I've seen me daez't upon a time: I scarce could wink or see a styme. 1808R. Anderson Cumbld. Ball. 142 Deil a wink cud I sleep, nay nor yet see a steyme. 1841Lever C. O'Malley cvii, The night was murthering dark; you could not see a stim. 1901J. Mollison Poems 94 They feared that never again War their e'en tae see a stime. 2. A glimpse or glance; the least bit or quantity (of anything); a glimmer (of light); a moment (of time).
1776Herd's Coll. Sc. Poems II. 150 And ne'er a blyth styme wad he blink, Until his wame was fou. 1794Har'st Rig xxiii, To cut their fur, and tak their share O' their nane rig. But ony mair? The fient ae stime! a1807J. Skinner Amusem. Leis. Hours (1809) 108 Else you may..wiss ye had ne'er seen a styme O' Louse nor Bonnet. 1888Barrie Auld Licht Idylls vii. (1892) 151 Even with three wicks it [the lamp] gave but a stime of light. 1895J. Barlow Strangers at Lisconnel vi. 120 You've ne'er a stim of light to be workin' in, sittin' there in the corner. 1897E. W. Hamilton Outlaws ix. 102 There's never a styme to choose betwixt him and James Hepburn. Hence styme v. intr. (see quot. 1808).
1808Jamieson, To styme, to open the eyes partially, to look as one does whose vision is indistinct. 1886J. J. H. Burgess Shetl. Sk. 66, I lookit an' stimed inta da black dark aroond me, but I could see naethin'. |