| 释义 |
▪ I. drab, n.1|dræb|
Also 6 drabe, 6–7 drabb(e.
[Not known before 16th c.; derivation uncertain: prob. at first a low or cant word. Evidently connected with Irish drabog, Gael. drabag dirty female, slattern; but evidence is wanting to show which is the original. Connexion with LG. drabbe dirt, mire, has also been suggested.]
1. A dirty and untidy woman; a slut, slattern.
c1515Cocke Lorell's B. (Percy Soc.) 11 Sluttes, drabbes, and counseyll whystelers. 1526R. Whitford Martiloge (1893) 36 Saynt Tabite was holden a fole and drabbe of kechyn. 1530Palsgr. 215/1 Drabbe a slutte, uilotiere. a1712W. King Art Cookery (T.) So at an Irish funeral appears A train of drabs with mercenary tears. 1816Scott Old Mort. viii, A dirty drab of a housemaid. 1872Geo. Eliot Middlem. xi, Who ended by living up an entry with a drab and six children for their establishment.
2. A harlot, prostitute, strumpet.
c1530Ld. Berners Arth. Lyt. Bryt. (1814) 403 And than shall the drabbe, my doughter, be mured vp in a stone wall. 1547Boorde Brev. Health ii. 6 b, Gyve that knave or drabbe a phylyp with a club. 1605Shakes. Macb. iv. i. 31 Birth-strangled Babe, Ditch-deliuer'd by a Drab. 1675Cocker Morals 15 Drink, Dice, and Drabs, three dange'rous Dees. 1731Swift Answ. Simile Wks. 1755 IV. i. 223 Each drab has been compared to Venus. 1856Mrs. Browning Aur. Leigh v. 789 And said ‘my sister’ to the lowest drab Of all the assembled castaways.
transf.1589Pappe w. Hatchet D iv b, There is no more sullen beast, than a he drab.
¶ The following are probably distinct words:
3. Salt-making. See quot. and cf. crib n. 9.
1753Chambers Cycl. Supp., Drabs, in the English salt works, a name given to a sort of wooden cases into which the salt is put, as soon as it is taken out of the boiling pan..Their bottoms are made..gradually inclining forwards; by which means the saline liquor that remains mixed with the salt easily drains out. In some places they use cribs instead of the Drabs.
4. A small or petty sum (of money); esp. in dribs and drabs: see drib.
1828Craven Dial., Drab, a small debt. ‘He's gain away for good, and he's left some drabs’. 1847–78in Halliwell. 1861Mayhew Lond. Labour III. 200 (Hoppe) None of us save money; it goes either in a lump, if we get a lump, or in dribs and drabs. 1888Daily News 19 Apr. 3/5 It [the payment] was received in dribs and drabs.
▪ II. drab, n.2 and a.|dræb|
[In early quotations app. synonymous with drap cloth (see quot. from Bailey, and cf. drap-de-Berry). Conjectured to have been applied to a hempen, linen, or woollen cloth of the natural undyed colour, whence attrib. in drap or drab colour, i.e. the colour of this cloth, and thus to have gradually become an adj. of colour: cf. rose, pink, salmon, etc. as colour names.]
A. n. A kind of cloth: see quots.
1541Lanc. Wills 80 Ij drabs of teir of hempe, a drab of new canvis. [1706Phillips (ed. Kersey), Drap (Fr.), cloath, Woollen-cloath. 1718Freethinker No. 42 ⁋8 To smile on a Brocade more than upon a Brown Drap.] 1721Bailey, Drap, Drab, cloth, woollen Cloth. 1740Dyche & Pardon, Drab, an extraordinary sort of woollen cloth, chiefly worn in the winter-time. 1753Hanway Trav. II. i. v. 20 British Woollens, such as hair-list drabs..We improved some of our drabs, so as to be almost equal to the dutch cloths in the substance. [1772Mrs. Scott Test Filial Duty II. 220 Collin, whose wedding coat is a new white drap.]
B. adj.
a. Of a dull light-brown or yellowish-brown.
[1686Lond. Gaz. No. 2100/4 The one with a Drapp-colour cloth Campaigne Coat.] 1715–1768 [see drap-coloured, drab-coloured, in D. below.] 1775Ash, Drab (adj. with clothiers), belonging to a gradation of plain colours betwixt a white and a dark brown. 1803S. Pegge Anecd. Eng. Lang. 266 Hence our drab cloth, pure and undied cloth, and they call this a drab colour in the trade. 1832Downes Lett. Cont. Countries I. 523 The cottages..were of a deep drab hue. 1837Dickens Pickw. iii, He wore wide drab trousers. 1865Sat. Rev. 12 Aug. (L.) Male Quakers have..discarded broadbrimmed hats and drab breeches.
b. fig. Dull; wanting brightness or colour.
1880R. Broughton Sec. Th. i. iv, The little drab day has already dropped in the maw of..night. 1892Pall Mall G. 27 Feb. 1/2 The lives of the people..are dull and drab; a round of work with but little amusement.
c. In comb. with other names of colours.
1894R. B. Sharpe Hand-bk Birds Gt. Brit. I. 12 Sides of neck and under surface of body drab-grey. 1905Westm. Gaz. 15 May 10/2 The rather soft fur of the underparts is drab-brown.
C. n. [absol. use of the adj.]
1. a. Drab colour; cloth or clothing of this colour; esp. in pl. = drab breeches.
1821Clare Vill. Ministr. I. 38 Milk-maids..Threw ‘cotton drabs’ and ‘worsted hose’ away. 1824Miss Mitford Village Ser. i. (1863) 38 Woe to white gowns! woe to black! Drab was your only wear. 1838Dickens Nich. Nick. xiv, A short old gentleman, in drabs and gaiters. 1884Pall Mall G. 7 June 5/1 Silk gowns of Quaker drab.
b. S. Afr. (pl.) The long feathers on the part of the wing of a female ostrich near to the junction with the body. (In quot. 1896 drab is adj.)
1881A. Douglass Ostrich Farming in S. Afr. xi. 68 The little white belly feathers should have been replaced by blacks or drabs. 1896R. Wallace Farming Ind. Cape Col. xi. 235 Drab, long, and medium were about 10s. per lb. lower. 1913C. Pettman Africanderisms 167 Drabs, corresponding growth from the female.
c. fig. A dull or lifeless appearance or character.
1903Daily Chron. 31 Dec. 5/1 Despite the fact that so many of his works wore a drab, still those who knew him best recognised that the drab was the colour of his experience. 1909Westm. Gaz. 4 Feb. 1/3 It is the one sustained note of colour in the dreary drab of Irish life.
2. Collector's name for a group of moths.
1819G. Samouelle Entomol. Compend. 370 Noctua angusta. The dark Drab. Noctua geminata. The twin-spotted Drab. 1869Newman British Moths 358 The clouded Drab (Tæniocampa instabilis).
D. Comb., as drab-breeched, drab-coloured, drab-tinted; drab-coat a., wearing a drab coat, drab-coated.
1715Lond. Gaz. No. 5328/4 Dark Drap colour'd Coat. 1768Sterne Sent. Journ. (1775) 114 (Mystery) Dressed in a dark drab-colour'd coat. 1843Syd. Smith Lett. on Amer. Debts Wks. 1859 II. 330/1 Drab-coloured men of Pennsylvania. 1848Whittier Peace Con. at Brus. Poems (1882) 149 The dull, meek droning of a drab-coat seer.
Hence ˈdrably adv., in drab colour; also fig., without brightness or colour, dully, uninterestingly; in comb., as drably-clad, drab-tinted; ˈdrabman (humorous nonce-wd.), a quaker; ˈdrabness, drab quality.
1860All Year Round No. 66. 378 Labouring..at our target practice, long before the drowsy drabmen have moved from their pillows. 1878M. E. Braddon Open Verd. viii. 60 Though the paint was mostly gone a general drabness remained. 1891H. C. Halliday Some one must suffer II. xii. 217 That drably-tinted lady. 1905Westm. Gaz. 19 Sept. 10/1 Few guess that the dahlia..has had a drably unromantic origin. 1918Cornhill Mag. June 616 The desirability of expressing thoughts fully and truly in words..is too drably presented to the child. 1927Sunday Express 1 May 9 Their novels look drably old-fashioned. 1956Ann. Rep. Smithsonian Inst. 216 The sun's interior must be drably uniform.
▪ III. drab, v.|dræb|
[f. drab n.1]
intr. To associate with harlots; to whore. Also to drab it.
1602Shakes. Ham. ii. i. 26 Drinking, fencing, swearing, Quarelling, drabbing. a1624Bp. M. Smith Serm. (1632) 276 He is the true gentleman now adayes, that can drinke and drab it best. 1719D'Urfey Pills (1872) III. 48 I'll drink and drab. 1853Blackw. Mag. LXXIV. 110 He would have drunk and diced, drabbed and hunted.
Hence ˈdrabbing vbl. n.; † ˈdrabber, a whoremonger.
a1611Beaum. & Fl. Triumph of Death vi, Drunkenness, and drabbing, thy two morals. 1632Massinger City Madam iv. ii. A most insatiate drabber. 1820Scott Monast. xxxv, Nothing but dicing, drinking and drabbing. |