释义 |
euro-creep, n. orig. and chiefly Brit. Brit. |ˈjʊərəʊkriːp|, |ˈjɔːrəʊkriːp|, U.S. |ˈjəroʊˌkrip|, |ˈjʊroʊˌkrip| Forms: also with capital initial(s). [Partly ‹Euro- comb. form + creep n., and partly ‹Euro n.2 + creep n. In sense 2 after mission creep n. at mission n. Compounds 3.] 1. depreciative. A person in favour of greater British political and economic integration with continental Europe, regarded as servile or obnoxious. Cf. creep n. 1c(b). In later use prob. with allusion to sense 2.
1982Times 20 May 30/6 His very act of rising provoked uproar among Labour backbenchers... ‘Eurocreep’..was one of the more friendly greetings. 1988A. Clark Diaries (1993) Sept. 235 The Eurocreeps have written for her a really loathsome text, wallowing in the rejection of our own national identity. 2001Sun (Nexis) 18 Dec. Eurocreeps are trumpeting the fact that British retailers are gearing up to accept the euro. 2. The increasing use of the euro as currency or as an accounting unit in the United Kingdom; the posited gradual shift in British public opinion towards acceptance of the replacement of sterling with the euro, esp. as caused by this.
1998Scotl. on Sunday 8 Feb. (Business section) 2/3 ‘Euro-creep’—the prospect that the euro will start infiltrating the UK through the back door as multinational companies seek to impose the euro as the main currency for accounting. 2001USA Today (Electronic ed.) 26 Dec. What..supporters of the common currency might have to bank on is eurocreep—the stealth movement toward the euro. 2002Observer 6 Jan. i. 24/4 The concept of ‘eurocreep’—increasing familiarity with the currency will soften British hostility. |