释义 |
tsk, int. Also tsck, and redupl. tsk-tsk. [Alveolar click formed by suction: cf. tchick n., tck int.] A sound expressing commiseration; an exclamation of disapproval or irritation. So tsk-tsk v. intr., to make this sound or utter this exclamation; also trans., to say disapprovingly.
1947K. L. Pike Phonemics ii. 41/1 Do you get..a sound resembling the noise of commiseration which is sometimes written in literature as ‘tsk-tsk’, or ‘tut-tut’? 1952S. Kauffmann Philanderer (1953) xvii. 277 ‘When she doesn't like a writer or a composer, it sort of dampens my..activity about him. I'm henpecked.’ ‘Tsk, tsk,’ said Ed extra clearly. 1958L. Durrell Mountolive xvi. 307 Balthazar..walked slowly..making the little clucking noise he always made with his tongue..Tsck, tsck. 1962A. Lurie Love & Friendship xiv. 273 ‘Poor Carolyn Hastings is officially engaged to that dreadful Cowie boy.’ ‘Tsk.’ 1966M. Avallone Fat Death 47 ‘Mr. Noon,’ he tsk-tsked reprovingly. ‘You really pretend not to know?’ 1968Punch 20 Mar. 428/3 No amount of tsk-tsking indignation and bitter wit will turn a buy into a bargain. 1976New Yorker 26 Apr. 102/2 She tsk-tsks over Momma. 1983M. Gee Sole Survivor iv. 32 The constable went tsk, tsk and looked at us sadly. There was nothing he could do so he sent us home.
Add: Also attributively and as n., (consisting of or resembling) an utterance of this sound.
1980S. Trott When your Lover Leaves xi. 35 She was the only woman I knew that made that old-fashioned tsk-tsk sound. 1988A. Lurie Truth about Lorin Jones iii. 42 Jacky made a tsk sound. 1988Toronto Sun 13 Apr. 152/1 Nobody puts as much outrage into a few pithy ‘tsk, tsks’..as this duo. |