释义 |
ˈfive-ˌfinger [OE. fíffingre wk. fem. (sense 1), f. fíf five + finger.] 1. A name for various plants. a. The cinquefoil (Potentilla reptans and other species). b. The oxlip (Primula elatior). c. Lotus corniculatus.
c1000Sax. Leechd. III. 123 Ac ceowe hwytes cuduwys sæd & fiffingran ælce dæᵹ ær he etan. a1825Forby Voc. E. Anglia 114 Five-fingers, oxlips, primula elatior. 1845S. Judd Margaret iii. (1851) II. 295 The leaves of the five-finger draw together to shelter the flower when it rains. 1866Treas. Bot., Five-fingers, potentilla reptans and canadensis. d. Any of several New Zealand trees with five-lobed leaves.
1926Trans. N.Z. Inst. LVI. 701 Nothopanax arboreum, five-finger. 1960B. Crump Good Keen Man 32 There wasn't a live five-finger or mangeo left in the valley. 2. A popular name for a species of star-fish.
1678Phillips, Five-finger, a Fish resembling a Spur⁓rowel, which gets into Oysters, when they open and sucks them out. 1850Hawthorne Scarlet L. xv. (1883) 213 She..made prize of several five-fingers. †3. Card-playing. The five of trumps. Also five-fingers. Obs.
1611Chapman May-Day v. ii. Wks. 1873 II. 400, I..lost it [the set] hauing the varlet and the fiue finger to make two tricks. 1674Cotton Gamester xiii. 123 The five fingers (alias, five of trumps) is the best Card in the pack. 4. Comb. five-finger discount U.S. slang, the activity or proceeds of stealing or of shop-lifting; five-finger exercise, a piece of music written for the purpose of affording practice in the movement of the fingers in pianoforte playing; also transf. and fig., something very easy; five-finger-grass = 1 a; five-finger-tied a. (nonce-wd.), ? tied with all the fingers of the hand.
1966J. M. Brewer in A. Dundes Mother Wit (1973) 241/2 *Five-finger discount (stealing) pays off. 1976Lieberman & Rhodes Compl. CB Handbk. v. 119 The perfect ‘gift’ for the ‘midnight shopper’ looking for a ‘five-finger discount’. 1983Neaman & Silver Dict. Euphemisms 184 If it fell off the back of a lorry.., Americans might describe it in CB English as a five finger discount (stolen merchandise).
1903Daily Chron. 20 July 3/3 Teaching small pupils the *five-finger exercises. 1936T. S. Eliot Coll. Poems 1909–35 145 (title of series of short poems) Five-Finger Exercises. 1959W. Golding Free Fall xii. 234 Leave happiness to the others, Sammy. It's a five-finger exercise. 1963B. W. Aldiss Airs of Earth 64 Early news bulletins had spoken of rioting and arrests here and there, but these were mere five-finger exercises for what was to come.
1640Parkinson Theat. Bot. 398 In English Cinkefoile..and *five finger grasse, or five leafed grasse. 1879Prior Plant-n., Five-finger-grass or Five-leaf, a plant so called from its five leaflets, potentilla reptans.
1606Shakes. Tr. & Cr. v. ii. 157 And with another knot *fiue finger-tied, The fractions of her faith..are bound to Diomed. Hence five-fingering vbl. n. (see quot.).
1889A. T. Pask Eyes Thames 58 They go out ‘five-fingering’, i.e. catching star-fish for manure. |