| 释义 |
▪ I. droll, n.|drəʊl|
Also 7 drolle, 7–8 drol(e.
[a. F. drôle (1584 drolle in Hatz.-Darm.; in 16th c. also draule), orig. a n. ‘a good fellow, boone companion, merrie grig, pleasant wag; one that cares not which end goes forward, or how the world goes’ (Cotgr.); subseq. also an adj., and so in Eng. The origin of the F. word is uncertain: see Diez, Littré, Darmesteter.]
1. A funny or waggish fellow; a merry-andrew, buffoon, jester, humorist.
c1645Howell Lett. i. i. xviii, The old Duke of Main..was us'd to play the drol with him. Ibid. (1650) I. 438 Dr. Dale, who was a witty kind of drole. 1658J. Harrington Prerog. Pop. Govt. ii. v. (1700) 374 Lucian is a Drol, and intends a Jest. 1665Pepys Diary 7 June, Very merry we were, Sir Thomas Harvy being a very drolle. c1672Wood Life (Oxf. Hist. Soc.) I. 201 John Lamphire..who was sometimes the natural droll of the company. a1680Butler Rem. (1759) I. 102 The worst Drols of Punchinellos Were much th' ingeniouser Fellows. 1709Steele Tatler No. 9 ⁋2 Mr. Scoggin, the famous Droll of the last Century. 1768–74Tucker Lt. Nat. (1852) I. 645 The frolic gamesome droll they have seen upon Covent Garden theatre. 1847Disraeli Tancred ii. viii, Mrs. Coningsby was..a fascinating droll. 1873Browning Red Cotton Night-Cap Country 328 As for the droll there, he that plays the king And screws out smile with a red nightcap on.
†2. A comic or farcical composition or representation; a farce; an enacted piece of buffoonery; a puppet-show. Obs.
1649G. Daniel Trinarch. To Rdr. 8 The frequent heapes Of Braines, from the weake sun-shine of an Eye Work Maggotts out—short Drolls—scurrilitie. 1662Tatham Aqua Tri. Introd., There are two Drolls, one of Watermen, the other of Seamen. 1711Shaftesbury Charac., Enthusiasm (1749) I. 19 They are..the subject of a choice Droll or Puppet-show at Bart'lemy Fair. 1731Medley Kolben's Cape G. Hope I. 10 The crew, to divert themselves, acted several Drolls. 1818Todd, Drollery..2. A show; the old word for the present drolls exhibited at fairs.
†b. The acting of farces. Obs.
1817D. Hughson Walks thro' Lond. 194 A house of public exhibition in horsemanship and droll.
†3. The action of making jest or sport; jesting; burlesque writing or style. Obs.
1670G. H. Hist. Cardinals i. i. 13 The whole Sermon being but a drol and derision of Kings and their Ministers. 1698[R. Ferguson] View Eccles. Pref., To turn everything he writes of into Droll and Laughter. 1711tr. Werenfels' Disc. Logomachys 164 The ridiculous Mockery and Drolls of the Vulgar. 1842H. Rogers Ess. I. i. 35 A pretty story..that affords scope for clinch and droll.
4. attrib. and Comb., as † droll-booth, droll-house, a place where drolls were acted (obs.); droll-teller.
1706E. Ward Hud. Rediv. i. viii, Like Smith-field Droll-Booth, built with Wood. 1738Watts Holiness of Times iii. Wks. 1812 III. 579 Should the senate-house..be used for a theatre or droll-house, or for idle puppet-shows. 1866Sat. Rev. 11 Aug. 186/1 The droll-teller still went his rounds from hall to cottage.
▪ II. droll, a.
[f. F. drôle: see prec. n.]
1. Intentionally facetious, amusing, comical, funny. † droll painting, caricature; d. painter, caricaturist.
1623Jas. I in Four C. Eng. Lett. 45, I heartily thank thee for thy kind droll letter. 1756–82J. Warton Ess. Pope (ed. 4) I. ii. 51 Landschape-painting..being even preferred to single portraits, to pieces of still-life, to droll-figures. 1762–71H. Walpole Vertue's Anecd. Paint. (1786) III. 45 Daniel Boon, Of the same country, a droll painter. 1789Belsham Ess. I. x. 202 The droll inventions of Hogarth. 1858Lytton What will He do i. xii, He was a droll and joyous humourist. 1861Wright Ess. Archæol. II. xxiii. 230 Everybody has a perception of what is droll and ludicrous.
2. Unintentionally amusing; queer, quaint, odd, strange, ‘funny’.
1753W. Melmoth Cicero iv. ix. (R.) Imitating the droll figures those gallant youths exhibited. 1790Burns Tam O'Shanter 159 Wither'd beldams, auld and droll. 1822Scott Let. in Taylor & Raine Mem. Surtees (1852) 164, I have built a droll sort of house here..a pretty, though somewhat fantastical residence. a1876G. Dawson Biog. Lect. (1886) 94 Charles the Second certainly was the drollest idol ever nation set up.
Hence ˈdrollity, the quality of being droll; concr. a droll thing; ˈdrollness.
1639Davenant Salmacida Spolia Dram. Wks. 1872 II. 317 Four Grotesques or drollities. 1823F. Clissold Ascent Mt. Blanc (1825) 10 Excited, as he said, by the drollness of the scene. 1885Library Mag. (N.Y.) July 4 The ground-cuckoo is an embodiment of drollness and absurdity.
▪ III. droll, v.
Also 7 drol, 7–8 drole.
[a. obs. F. drôler ‘to play the wag’, etc. (Cotgr.), f. drôle n.]
1. intr. To make sport or fun; to jest, joke; to play the buffoon. Const. with, at, on, upon.
1654Whitelocke Jrnl. Swed. Emb. (1772) I. 130 Whitelocke drolled with them. 1665Earl of Marlborough Fair Warnings 19 There was no greater argument of a foolish and inconsiderate person, than profanely to droll at Religion. a1678Marvell Wks. III. 333 (R.) As Killegrew buffons his master, they droll on their God, but a much duller way. 1680Vind. Conforming Clergy (ed. 2) 32 An Author..that drolls with every thing. 1739W. Melmoth Fitzosb. Lett. (1763) 227 To drole upon the established religion of a country. 1784Cowper Task ii. 369 He doubtless is in sport, and does but droll. 1894R. Bridges Feast of Bacchus v. 1428 To droll on a private person.
2. trans. To jest (a thing) away, off; † to jest (a person) out of or into something (obs.); to bring forth after the manner of a jester or buffoon.
1663R. Stapylton Slighted Maid 7 (N.) He would scarce droll away the sum he offer'd. 1679Sharp Serm. at St. Margarets 11 Apr. 11 To Baffle and Droll out of Countenance those that stand up for the Reputation of Sacred things. a1704R. L'Estrange (J.), Men that will not be reasoned into their senses, may yet be laughed or drolled into them. 1834Tait's Mag. I. 57 The Mulgraves and Masseys..might have drolled and drivelled forth their sickening imbecility for half a century.
Hence ˈdrolling vbl. n. and ppl. a.; also ˈdrollingly adv.; jestingly, so as to make a jest of it; † ˈdroller, † ˈdrollist, a professed facetious person; a jester, buffoon.
1645Evelyn Diary 20 Feb., Their drolling lampoons and scurrilous papers. 1670G. H. Hist. Cardinals i. i. 19 [They] use but drolling and impertinence in their Arguments. 1676Glanvill Season. Refl. i. 5 And..now he.. sets the Apes and Drollers upon it. 1681― Sadducismus ii. (1726) 453 These idle Drollists have an utter Antipathy to all the braver and more generous kinds of Knowledge. 1684J. Goodman Winter Even. Confer. P j. (T.), To talk lightly and drollingly of it. a1713T. Ellwood Autobiog. (1765) 284 Something like an Epitaph, in a drolling Stile. 1847W. Irving 14 Apr. in Life IV. 3 A quiet drolling vein. 1882Trollope Alice Dugdale, etc. 357 There was a sound of drolling in her voice. |