| 释义 |
Topsy|ˈtɒpsɪ|
The name of a character in Mrs. H. B. Stowe's novel Uncle Tom's Cabin; used allusively as the type of something that seems to have grown of itself without anyone's intention or direction (see quot. 1851).
[1851Mrs. Stowe Uncle Tom's Cabin in Nat. Era 6 Nov. 1/5 Have you ever heard anything about God, Topsy?.. Do you know who made you?’ ‘Nobody, as I knows on,’ said the child... ‘I spect I grow'd. Don't think nobody never made me.’] 1885Kipling Let. in Ld. Birkenhead Rudyard Kipling (1978) vi. 81, I have really embarked..on my novel Mother Maturin—Like Topsy ‘it growed’ while I wrote. 1936C. Rouse Old Towns i. 17 The planning of towns in medieval England can be said to have followed no given rule—they were like Topsy who ‘just growed’. 1955Times 30 Aug. 9/7 It may be that political parties must emulate Topsy and just grow. 1967Boston Sunday Herald 9 Apr. 27/4 This practice [sc. bugging] has grown like Topsy. 1973‘J. Ryder’ Trevayne (1974) xxv. 201 Are you implying that it [sc. a business] just grew—a Topsy? 1982Oxford Times 30 Apr. 31/1 The garden, like Topsy, ‘just growed’. |