| 释义 |
▪ I. dummy, n.|ˈdʌmɪ|
Also 6–7 Sc. dummie, dumbie, 8 dummee, 9 dumbee, dumby.
[f. dumb a. + -y. Cf. blacky, darky.]
1. a. A dumb person. colloq.
1598Ferguson Scot. Prov. (1785) 10 (Jam.) Dummie canna lie. 1619Boyd Last Battell of Soule (1629) 1049 (Jam.) All men are lyers, but Dummie cannot lye. 1681S. Colvil Whigs Supplic. (1751) 120 Like to dumbies making signs. 1823Moore Fables 26 The wise men of Egypt were secret as dummies. 1826J. Wilson Noct. Ambr. Wks. 1855 I. 117 Tongue-tied like a dumbie. a1849Hor. Smith Addr. Mummy ii, Speak! for thou long enough hast acted dummy.
b. A deaf-mute; a tramp or beggar who pretends to be deaf and dumb. slang.
1874in Hotten Slang Dict. 1918‘A No. 1’ in N. Anderson Hobo (1923) vii. 100 Dummy. Pretends to be deaf and dumb. 1926J. Black You can't Win vi. 70 What do you do if you bump into a natural dummy when you're D. D.ing? 1940C. McCullers Heart is Lonely Hunter (1943) i. iv. 47 But a dummy!.. ‘Are there any other deaf-mute people here?’ he asked.
2. a. At Whist, An imaginary player represented by an exposed ‘hand’, managed by and serving as partner to one of the players; a game so played.
double dummy, a game in which two ‘hands’ are exposed, so that each of the two players manages two ‘hands’.
1736Swift Proposal for Regul. Quadrille Wks. 1824 VII. 374 She shall not handle a card that night, but Dummy shall be substituted in her room. 1825Lamb Lett. (1888) II. 140 We have a corner at double dumbee for you. 1826Disraeli Viv. Grey (L.) He proposed that we should play double dummy. a1839Praed Poems (1864) II. 181 He'll see her, silent as a mummy, At whist, with her two maids and dummy. 1856Lt. Col. B. Whist-player (1858) 70 Dummy cannot revoke. 1860Bohn's Hand-bk. Games iv. 178 He who draws the lowest card takes Dumby as his partner.
b. In auction or contract Bridge, the hand of the declarer's (in the old type of Bridge, of the dealer's) partner, which is displayed and is played by the declarer; also, the player whose cards are thus displayed; double dummy (see quot. 1964). Also attrib.
1886Biritch, or Russian Whist 2 No suggestions as to play may be made by the one standing out (Dummy) to the dealer. 1894‘Boaz’ Pkt. Guide to Bridge 5 After the first player has played a card, the dealer plays his partner's hand, which, like Dummy, is placed face upwards on the table. 1901R. F. Foster Bridge 17 After laying down his cards..the dummy takes no further part in the play, and is not allowed to make any remarks or suggestions. 1901W. Dalton Bridge Abridged 23 With very bad cards in your own hand, there is a slightly increased possibility of an exceptional hand in your Dummy. Ibid., After the first card is led the Dummy hand is exposed. 1903[see bridge n.2 b]. 1904Bridge & Progressive Bridge 18 Dummy Bridge, or Bridge for three players, can be played in several ways. The following is the best system:—The player who cuts the lowest card takes Dummy against the other two players..and the Dummy hand is placed opposite to him. Ibid. 22 Double Dummy Bridge, or Bridge for two players, is not at all a bad game. 1910W. Dalton ‘Saturday’ Bridge (9th imp.) 14 After exposing Dummy, the dealer's partner has no part whatever in the game. Ibid. xvi. 230, Z leads to the first trick, and A's hand is exposed on the table, and A becomes the dummy for that deal. 1936E. Culbertson Contract Bridge Complete xxxix. 443 South leads a small trump and dummy's Queen is taken by East's King. 1955Times 6 July 4/7 It is not a double-dummy problem to find the best line of play by the declarer. 1964Official Encycl. Bridge 131/1 Double dummy, play of a hand that could not be improved upon, as though declarer were looking at all four hands... It can also be used to refer to perfect play by the defenders. Originally, double dummy was a two-handed form of whist in which each player had a dummy. Some players exposed all four hands, thus giving rise to the modern usage. 1969E. H. Pinto Treen 224 Playing card stands..are used in double dummy bridge.
3. A person who has nothing to say or who takes no active part in affairs; a dolt, blockhead.
1796M. Robinson Angelina II. 61 Those who take you for a dummy will be out of their reckoning. 1840Dickens Barn. Rudge lxi, If the chief magistrate's a man and not a dummy. 1856Miss Mulock J. Halifax (ed. 17) 219 Half the House of Commons is made up of harmless dummies.
4. One who is a mere tool of another; a ‘man of straw’; in Australia, a man employed to take up crown-land as if for himself, but in reality for another person who is not entitled to do so.
1866Rogerson Poems 23 The good selectors got most of the land The dummies being afraid to stand. 1880C. H. Pearson in Victorian Rev. I. 527 No doubt this will reduce the area upon which dummying is profitable, and the average profits of dummies. 1885Law Times Rep. LI. 687/2 The petitioner was from first to last a mere dummy in the hands of Mr. Tassie.
5. A counterfeit object made to resemble the real thing, as a sham or empty package, drawer, etc. in a shop, made as though containing goods; a substitute used to mark or occupy a space in an arrangement of articles, etc.; spec.,
a. A block, model, or lay figure on which clothes, hair, etc. are displayed. (See also tailor's dummy s.v. tailor n. 6 b.)
b. A figure representing a man in rifle or artillery practice.
c. A floating landing-stage, or dumb barge.
d. A hatter's pressing-iron.
e. A set of sheets or leaves of paper made to resemble a book or document. See also quots. 1858, 1864, 1964, and cf. 6. So in dummy, in dummy form.
a1845Hood Tale Trumpet vii, She was deaf as any tradesman's dummy. 1850Thackeray Hobson's Choice ii. Wks. 1886 XXIV. 228 A dark green suit..purchased at an establishment in Holborn, off the dummy at the door. 1851Illustr. Lond. News 53 Attempted to jump on to the ‘dummy’ before the vessel had got quite alongside. 1856S. C. Brees Gloss. Terms, Dumby, a floating barge connected with a pier. 1857A. Mathews Tea-T. Talk I. 341 Like the dummies on a young lawyer's shelf. 1858Simmonds Dict. Trade, Dummy..a name given by firemen to the jets from the mains or chief water pipes. 1864Webster, Dummy, 1. A dumb-waiter (Colloq.)..5. A locomotive with condensing engines, and, hence, without the noise of escaping steam. 1870Illustr. Lond. News 24 Sept. 327 On Friday the small gun was again fired, at various ranges, from 1200 down to 400 yards, at targets and at dummies..making the same targets and producing the like destructive effect among the dummies. 1871Daily News 28 Apr. (Farmer), The Bill is not yet in the hands of members or public, the document placed on the table of the Lords being what is, in parliamentary slang, called a ‘dummy’. 1893Leeds Mercury 19 May 5/2 Mr. Acland..laid the new Evening School Code in dummy form on the table of the House of Commons. 1898A. J. Balfour in Hansard Commons 20 June 768 The Report has been presented in dummy, and is now being proceeded with. 1929F. W. Carter Secrets of your Daily Paper 59 They are supplied with what is known as a ‘dummy’ or a ‘make-up’. 1964Gloss. Letterpress Rotary Print. Terms (B.S.I.) 12 Dummies, blank or printed copies usually made up for editorial or production purposes. 1967Times Rev. Industry Aug. 69/1 A mammoth Encyclopaedia of Education, the dummy of which looks most impressive even though not all the contents are in it.
f. In full dummy teat. An indiarubber teat put into a baby's mouth to soothe it. Also fig.
1903Science Siftings 22 Aug. 269/1, I never saw the child but it had a dummy in its mouth. 1906Chemist & Druggist LXIX. 648/2 There has been little progress in the shape of the ‘dummy teat’. 1915D. H. Lawrence Let. 12 Feb. (1962) I. 316 He [sc. E. M. Forster] sucks his dummy—you know, those child's comforters—long after his age. a1930― Last Poems (1932) 273 The British Public..gets bigger and bigger..and its dummy-teat has to be made bigger and bigger and bigger.
g. (Rugby) Football. to give (or sell) the (or a) dummy: to feign to pass the ball so as to deceive one's opponent. colloq.
1907‘Old International’ Rugby Guide 27 Feinting, ‘giving a dummy’, or pretending to pass is a useful adjunct to the numerous other qualifications of a good centre. a1914J. E. Raphael Mod. Rugby Football (1918) 125 A little judicious ‘dummy’ giving might be very effective in securing an opening. 1920Times 8 Nov. 6/3 R. C. Pickles ‘sold the dummy’ really cleverly to score again for Gloucestershire.
h. The punishment cell in a prison. N.Z. slang.
1936‘R. Hyde’ Passport to Hell iii. 60 It is always dusk in the Dummy, which lies underground. Ibid. iii. 65 Twenty-one days on bread and water in the Dummy. 1945O. Burton In Prison vii. 107 The aggressor in this case was promptly led off and incarcerated in the ‘dummy’.
i. A figure representing a human being, animal, etc., used by a ventriloquist. Cf. doll n.1 2 b. Also fig.
1936E. Sitwell Victoria xix. 229 The miserable, hallucinated ventriloquist-dummy hero of one of the most notorious murder trials. 1950[see doll n.1 2 b]. 1960Economist 8 Oct. 175/1 Is he no more than the ventriloquist's dummy for any scientific pressure group that is not getting its way with the Treasury?
j. In a double bail in a milking shed, the structure which separates the foreparts of the two cows, keeps them in position for milking, and serves as a stand for parts of the milking machine. N.Z.
1950N.Z. Jrnl. Agric. Apr. 378/3 The use of galvanised iron piping or iron piping for erection of internal dummies and partitions. Ibid. May 479 (caption) A small dairy with suspended dummy and bucket milking machine for one cow.
k. Computing. An instruction or a sequence of data that merely occupies space, used either to regularize the position of other items or to allow a later insertion. Usu. attrib.
1948Goldstine & von Neumann in Coll. Wks. J. von Neumann (1963) V. 158 The three α's must obtain numbers of the same parity. This may necessitate the insertion of dummy (ineffective, irrelevant) orders in appropriate places. 1951M. V. Wilkes et al. Preparation of Programs for an Electronic Digital Computer 148 Order 13 is I F during input of punched digits, T F for dummy zeros which make up remainder of 10 digits. c1964KDF9 Programming Man. iv. 22 Any instruction preceded by an asterisk will be compiled as the first instruction in a new word, any redundant spaces in the preceding word being filled with dummy instructions. 1969Lehman & Bailey Digital Computing x. 193/2 The function might be defined as sum(a,b,c,d) = a + b + c + d. In this case, the dummy variables are a, b, c, and d. When the function reference is executed, these dummy variables take on the values of the variables named in the reference. 1970F. Stuart Fortran Programming (ed. 2) ix. 203 All arguments mentioned as dummies may be duplicated in other subprograms or in the main program, without causing error.
6. slang. A pocket-book.
1785in Grose Dict. Vulg. Tongue (Farmer). 1812in J. H. Vaux Flash Dict. 1834H. Ainsworth Rookwood iii. v, Then out with the dummy.
7. a. attrib. or adj. Counterfeit, sham: see 4. dummy whist: see 2.
1843Lefevre Life Trav. Physic. III. iii. xi. 234, I found three gentlemen playing a rubber of dummy whist. 1846Punch XI. 185 (Farmer) A Dummy list of Causes has long since been preferred. 1870Reade Put yourself, etc. I. xi. 275 A very beautiful organ that had an oval mirror in the midst of its gilt dummy pipes. 1872O. W. Holmes Poet Breakf-t. i. (1885) 13 The dummy clock-dial. 1892Stevenson Across the Plains 15, I have..enjoyed some capital sport there with a dummy gun. 1971J. Leasor Love-All i. 6 Now for the flat, number 1792... Floor 17, flat two. The nine was just a dummy digit to make the building seem more important... Some people did that with their names and added an extra initial..Harry S. Truman for example. 1971Listener 22 Apr. 521/2 Of 91 human volunteers, 47 received three grams of ascorbic acid daily for nine days, and 44 others took dummy tablets.
b. Comb. dummy-head(ed) a., applied to a torpedo which is provided with a thin copper head and filled with water for target practice; dummy run colloq., orig. Naval slang (see quots. 1916 and 1929); hence, a practice attack, exercise, landing, etc.; a ‘trial run’, a rehearsal.
1906Daily Chron. 8 Sept. 5/3 A large proportion of the dummy-headed torpedoes struck her hull. 1923Daily Mail 22 June 5 The 'planes released six dummy-head aerial torpedoes.
1916In Northern Mists xvi. 60 At certain firing practices the ship steams along a buoyed course, aiming the guns at the target but not actually firing, as a rehearsal or dummy run. 1929F. C. Bowen Sea Slang 42 Dummy run, a practice evolution in the Navy. 1943C. H. Ward-Jackson Piece of Cake 27 Dummy run, a bombing raid or target approach during which no bombs are dropped. 1959Punch 6 May 604/1 A man of my known and respected equanimity was considered the ideal vehicle for a dummy run. 1962Listener 31 May 942/1 The pied wagtails made dummy runs over the hawks' heads. 1967E. Grierson Crime of one's Own vii. 57 It was a dummy run... What I saw today was part of the cover story.
▪ II. dummy, v.
[f. prec. n.]
1. trans. To select or take up (land) in one's own name, but really in the interest of another person who is not himself entitled to do so. Also absol. Australia.
1873Trollope Austral. & N.Z. vi. 101 The..system is generally called dummying—putting up a non-existent free selector—and is illegal. 1880C. H. Pearson in Victorian Rev. I. 527 A cry is raised..that land is dummied for rich men. Ibid. 531 A man who has dummied 320 acres. 1885Mrs. C. Praed Head Station 15 The expediency of doing a little ‘dummying’.
2. intr. to dummy up: to refuse to talk or give information; to keep quiet. U.S. slang.
1926J. Black You can't Win xix. 282 He dummies up on the natives an' in a couple of days they let him go. 1942R. Chandler High Window (1943) xx. 145 You can't dummy up on a murder case. 1962K. Orvis Damned & Destroyed xii. 84 All right, dummy up, then.
3. trans. To prepare a dummy (dummy n. 5 e) of (a book, document, etc.). Also intr. (with in) of copy: to fit into a lay-out. U.S.
1928in Funk's Stand. Dict. 1952Time 21 Apr., Dummy (v.t.), to lay out a sample issue of the magazine, showing where editorial material and ads will be printed. 1967L. J. Braun Cat who ate Danish Modern iv. 33 The copy dummied in perfectly, cut-lines spaced out evenly.
4. trans. In Football, to feint (a pass); to deceive (an opponent) by means of a feigned pass, a body-swerve, etc. Also intr. So to dummy one's way. Cf. dummy n. 5 g.
1958Times 13 Oct. 15/1 Once Ridd nearly dummied his way through a wall of humanity. 1960E. S. & W. J. Higham High Speed Rugby xviii. 262 The fly-half dummies a pass to him and then slips the ball back inside to the blindside wing. 1960T. McLean Kings of Rugby 148 Jackson made dummying runs which lightened the gathering gloom. 1961Times 8 May 4/6 Smith..dummied King one way, swivelled the other and on the turn cracked a fierce shot to the roof of the Leicester net. 1967Ibid. 9 Oct. 13/8 A typically brilliant try by Pickering, who dummied his way over near the posts.
So ˈdummyism, the practice of dummying land.
1875Spectator (Melbourne) 19 June 80/2 ‘Larrikinism’ was used as a synonym for ‘blackguardism’, and ‘dummyism’ for ‘perjury’. 1877M. Clarke Hist. Australia 211 It contains powers to prevent dummyism, and gives concessions to Crown lessees. 1880C. H. Pearson in Victorian Rev. I. 532 In Victoria..the system specially favours dummyism. |