| 释义 |
▪ I. tootle, n.|ˈtuːt(ə)l|
[f. tootle v.]
1. An act or the action of tootling or sounding a horn or similar wind-instrument.
1852R. S. Surtees Sponge's Sp. Tour xli, Bragg's queer tootle of his horn..now sounded at the low end of the cover. 1889Scott. Leader 6 Dec. 5 The sudden and shrill tootle of a trumpet. 1894Daily News 12 Mar. 2/1 The guard's inspiriting tootle wakes the echoes.
2. Speech or writing of more sound than sense; verbiage, twaddle.
1883Cornh. Mag. May 542 Sometimes..the tootle becomes a middle in a weekly paper, sometimes it assumes the guise of an amusing review. 1888Scott. Leader 8 Mar. 7 The good old order of English prose which used to be called at the English Universities ‘tootle’, and for which there are other names, older and more recent, but hardly any more expressive.
So tootle-te-ˈtootle, tootle-tootle, a piece of continuous tootling.
1855Browning Up at a Villa ix, Bang, whang, whang goes the drum, tootle-te-tootle the fife. 1884Pall Mall G. 24 July 4/2 The musical powers of most of the bands, whom no amount of entreaty could divert even for a moment from their prearranged and wholly meaningless tootle-ti-tootle. 1910Sat. Rev. 10 Sept. 322/1 Footle-footle-footle goes the clarinet with a fragment of a theme; tootle-tootle-tootle echoes the flute.
▪ II. tootle, v.|ˈtuːt(ə)l|
[freq. f. toot v.2 + -le 4.]
1. intr.
a. To toot continuously; to produce a succession of modulated notes on a wind-instrument.
1842S. Lover Handy Andy xviii, The fifer..tootled with some difficulty. 1878Stevenson Inland Voy. 4 Tootling on the sentimental flute. 1879Sala Paris herself again II. iv. 53 The sable minstrel..begins to tootle most sweetly.
b. Of birds: To make a similar noise.
1820Clare Rural Life (ed. 3) 207 When tootling robins carol-welcomes sing. 1827― Sheph. Cal. 25 To hear the robin's note once more, Who tootles while he pecks his meal. 1899O. Seaman In Cap & Bells (1900) 21 The lark is tootling in the sky.
c. fig. To write twaddle or mere verbiage.
1883[see tootling below]. 1894Daily News 28 Feb. 5/1 Mr. Skeat's ‘Life of Chaucer’ is entirely businesslike. He does not ‘tootle’ over what Chaucer may have done, and seen, and said.
2. trans. To play music on (a wind instrument). Also transf. and with music as direct obj. colloq.
1890J. Service Thir Notandums xiv. 99 Heralds clad in green tootled glorious musick frae their siller horns. 1895G. Mortimer Like Stars that Fall iii. 28 ‘There's no need for the cornet in this piece,’ said Jenny. ‘No, only Abrahams is so fond of tootling his bloomin' instrument,’ said Larpenti. 1939[see smoker 4 b]. 1978J. Galway Autobiogr. xiv. 164, I had tootled my flute to some purpose with Herbert von Karajan.
3. intr. To walk, to wander casually or aimlessly; usu. const. along, around, etc. Also transf. with reference to motor transport; to tootle off, to go, to depart. colloq.
1902Cornh. Mag. July 102, I tootled down to Cooney's a half-hour before time. 1914M. & J. Findlater Crossriggs xx. 149 Take that beast and stop all his work, feed him fat and let him sleep on the rug and tootle around the garden. 1918Punch 3 Apr. 222 Well, I must tootle off now. 1951J. B. Priestley Festival at Farbridge ii. ii. 272 You're going to be tootling round to a lot of big houses. 1956N. Coward South Sea Bubble ii. i. 52 It's getting late... It is time for me to tootle off home. a1974R. Crossman Diaries (1975) I. 532 We had a real honeymoon holiday..tootling round in a Volkswagen which Helga Greene's villainous friend Johnnie in Heraklion had rented to us. 1978E. O'Brien Mrs. Reinhardt 55 He would work for an hour or so and then tootle off. 1983Listener 20 Oct. 31/3 Veteran cars tootle down country lanes.
Hence ˈtootling vbl. n. and ppl. a.; also ˈtootler, a writer of ‘tootle’, verbiage, or twaddle; tootle-too v., tootle-tootle v. = tootle v. 1.
1821Clare Vill. Minstr. I. 30 He heard the tootling robin sound her knell. Ibid. 36 The tuteling fife, and hoarse rap-tapping drum. 1857Hughes Tom Brown i. v, Here's Rugby,..said the old guard, pulling his horn out of its case, and tootle-tooing away. 1879Jefferies Wild Life in S.C. 105 The tootling of pan-pipes in front of the shows. 1883Cornh. Mag. May 542 The sort of scribblers..whom I am wont to call in my own private dialect the tootlers, that is to say the good folk who write a tootle about nothing in particular. Ibid. 543 The consumer who takes a delight in the perusal of tootling. 1892Pall Mall G. 16 Dec. 3/1 The drumming and the tootle-tooing, even the skirling of the Hallelujah maidens. |