释义 |
Tadpole2 In Tadpole and Taper, names of two political schemers in Disraeli's Coningsby; hence allusively, in the sense ‘professional politicians, the hacks of a political party’. Hence Tadpole and Taperism.
[1844Disraeli Coningsby ii. ii, Mr. Tadpole and Mr. Taper were also there; they too had lost their seats since 1832; but being men of business, and accustomed from early life to look about them, they had already commenced the combinations which..were to bear them back to the assembly where they were so missed.] 1885Manch. Exam. 3 June 5/4 The tadpoles and the tapers of the party demand a cry. 1904A. Birrell in Contemp. Rev. Apr. 475 A book further removed from such Tadpole and Taperism is not in the library. 1905W. Churchill in Daily Chron. 13 May 5/6 The Cabinet was packed with nonentities, Tadpoles and Tapers from the Whips' room. 1908F. Harrison in Trans. Roy. Hist. Soc. Ser. iii. III. 45 The reasons why he [Chatham] would never take office again [etc.]..all this has greatly exercised the Tadpoles and Tapers of his age and of our own. |