| 释义 |
thank-you-ma'am U.S. colloq.
Also thank'ee-marm.
A hollow or ridge in a road, which causes persons passing over it in a vehicle to nod the head involuntarily, as if in acknowledgement of a favour; spec. a ridge or hollow on a hill road serving to throw off descending rain-water.
1849Longfellow Kavanagh xi, We went like the wind over the hollows in the snow;—the driver called them ‘thank-you-ma'ams’, because they made everybody bow. 1867O. W. Holmes Guard. Angel xiv, Life's a road that's got a good many thank-you-ma'ams to go bumpin' over, says he. 1897Howells Landl. Lion's Head 192 At one of the thank-you-marms in the road, the sick man stopped, like a weary horse, to breathe. |