| 释义 |
▪ I. ˈfinger-post, n.
A post set up at the parting of roads, with one or more arms, often terminating in the shape of a finger, to indicate the directions of the several roads; a guide-post.
1789Mrs. Piozzi Journ. France II. 291 The words Route de Belgrade upon a finger-post. 1857Toulm. Smith Parish 357 The Highway Surveyors ought to put up finger posts..where they are likely to help travellers.
transf. and fig.1793Beddoes Math. Evid. 158 It had pleased him to christen the pronouns, the finger-posts of language. 1857Stanley Mem. Canterb. i. 31 So many finger-posts, pointing your thoughts, along various roads, to times and countries far away.
b. slang. (See quot.)
1785Grose Dict. Vulg. Tongue, Finger post, a parson, so called, because like the finger post, he points out a way he..probably will never go, i.e. the way to heaven.
Hence ˈfinger-posted ppl. a., having a finger-post; in quot. fig. ˈfinger-postless a., without a finger-post.
1885H. O. Forbes Nat. Wand. E. Archip. 88 Flowers..with..a beautifully painted and finger-posted labellum. 1873R. Broughton Nancy III. 147 A labyrinth of cross⁓roads, fingerpostless, guideless.
▪ II. finger-post, v.
[f. the n.]
trans. To indicate by means of a finger-post. Also fig.
1908Councils' Jrnl. 17 The Parish Council of Orrell-with-Ford..is properly proud of having ‘name-plated all the roads, finger-posted all the footpaths,’ [etc.]. 1926T. E. Lawrence Seven Pillars (1935) 7 The contents seem to me to be adequately finger-posted by this synopsis. 1944Ess. & Stud. XXIX. 52 In the drama the playwright may be ‘explicit’ in finger-posting parts of plot, situation, or character. |