| 释义 |
ˈsundowner
[f. sundown + -er1.]
1. Austral. colloq. A tramp who makes a practice of arriving at a station about sundown under the pretence of seeking work, so as to obtain food and a night's lodging.
[1846C. P. Hodgson Reminisc. Austral. 302 A ‘Sundowner’ (? a task requiring no great exertion which lasts until sundown).] 1868Sydney Punch 14 Nov. 198 (heading) The song of the sundowner. 1875I. L. Bird Sandwich Isl. 216 As I rode up to the door, certain obnoxious colonial words, such as ‘sun⁓downers,’ and ‘bummers,’ occurred to me, and I felt myself a ‘sundowner’ when the host came out and asked me to dismount. 1883J. Bradshaw New Zealand iv. 26 Another class of labourers..known by the name of..Sundowners, because they never approach a habitable place before sun⁓down, lest they should be requested to take a further stroll. 1894H. Nisbet Bush Girl's Rom. 26 Never a tramp was turned away empty-handed unless he was a well-known sundowner.
2. orig. Colonial (esp. S. Afr.).
a. An alcoholic drink taken at sunset. Also transf. and attrib.
1909Daily Chron. 20 Oct. 6/7 The ‘sundowner’ refreshment of the West African late afternoon. 1921Chambers's Jrnl. Jan. 43/1 Surely you are not going to refuse a solitary sundowner. 1932E. Waugh Black Mischief viii. 298, I said we'd drop into the Brethertons for a sundowner. 1947W. S. Maugham Creatures of Circumstance 37 See you again at six for a sun-downer. 1966D. Varaday Gara-Yaka's Domain x. 113 We had a good notion the herd would return for a ‘sundowner’. 1978G. Greene Human Factor ii. iv. 86 He sits there on a hot evening swilling his sundowners without a care in the world.
b. An evening drinks party.
1962Pretoria News 9 Nov. 9/3 The war raged on, much to the delight of our sundowner guests. 1971D. Creed Trial of Lobo Icheka xv. 149 I'll throw a Sundowner at your place tonight... Invite anyone you feel I might like to meet. 1973J. J. McKelvey Man against Tsetse ii. 73 At the ‘sundowners’, or cocktail hours, heavy white socks seem safer and more comfortable than black ones.
3. U.S. colloq. One who practises as a doctor, etc., outside normal working hours or in addition to his principal occupation. Cf. sundown, sun-down 3 and moonlighter 3.
1886Turf, Field & Farm 10 May 399/3 The night doctors gather the ‘stiffs’ and the ‘sundowners’ flourish around them with scalping knives. 1904Sun (N.Y.) 14 Aug. 17 The Washington sundowner is so called because he practises a profession, usually medicine or dentistry, after the close of Government office hours, or after sundown.
Hence ˈsundowning, the practice of a sundowner.
1891E. Kinglake Australian at H. 133 A certain gang of bushrangers..caused it to be known that tramps and such like were under their special protection... The effect of this was to make sundowning an intolerable nuisance within the district. |