| 释义 |
▪ I. † twee, n.1 Obs.
Also 8 twey-; 7 pl. tweeze.
[Aphetic f. etwee etui.]
= tweeze n.
1690Songs Costume (Percy Soc.) 196 [We also see] Tweeze As rich and costly as all these. 1747Hoadly Susp. Husb. ii. ii, Sure I have not dropt my Twee. 1749in 6th Rep. Dep. Kpr. App. ii. 123 Small perspective Glasses with Mathematical and other Instruments and Twees, in one and the same case. 1767Poetry in Ann. Reg. 236 Seals, rings, 'twees, bodkins.
attrib.1782F. Burney Cecilia v. ix, What has he left behind him? a twey-case, I suppose, and a bit of a hat won't go on a man's head.
▪ II. twee, n.2 (int.)|twiː|
Variously extended, as twee-we-we, twee-twee-twee, twee-ee.
[Echoic.]
An imitation of the sound of a horn, and also of the notes of some birds: see quots.
1708Motteux in Muses Mercury Jan. 11 With a Twee-we-we, Twee-we-we, think it no Scorn, Cits, Souldiers, and Courtiers, give way to the Horn. 1880A. B. Todd Poet. Wks. (1907) 258 A little wren its twee-twee-twee let fall. 1909Daily News 21 June 4 Only the greenfinch's tireless ‘twee-ee’ was to be heard.
▪ III. twee, a. (and n.3) colloq.|twiː|
[f. tweet, an infantile pronunciation of sweet.]
1. Originally: ‘sweet’, dainty, chic. Now only in depreciatory use: affectedly dainty or quaint; over-nice, over-refined, precious, mawkish.
1905Punch 8 Mar. 178/1, ‘I call him perfectly twee!’ persisted Phyllis. 1917M. T. Hainsselin Grand Fleet Days xv. 91 Girl: Oh, here's another little gun; isn't it a darling! Isn't it just too twee for words! 1947E. Hyams William Medium viii. 164 ‘Isn't he twee!’ said Mary, and pinched his cheek. 1956G. Durrell Drunken Forest x. 193 ‘What twee individuals?’ ‘Those knowledgeable sentimentalists who are forever telling me that it's cruel to lock up the poor wild creatures in little wooden boxes.’ 1962Observer 25 Mar. 25/3 She has a small and, it must be said, pretty twee cottage. 1967E. Short Embroidery & Fabric Collage iv. 102 The best of our designers who have abandoned the rather ‘twee’ decorative type of embroidered picture. 1973G. Robyns Wimbledon xxix. 192 There is..a twee Arcadian outdoor studio complete with white trellis and plastic flowers. 1983Listener 21 July 33/1 Mike Nichols's thriller-fantasy about dolphins should be as nauseatingly twee as the worst Disney—but it isn't.
2. ellipt. as n.
1957Daily Mail 29 Oct. 12/8, I cannot understand why television's handling of fashion in evening programmes has never got past the twee.
Hence ˈtweely adv., in a twee manner; ˈtweeness.
1958Spectator 2 May 565/3 He manages..to resist the temptation to play up the tweeness and tell the English what they expect to hear. 1962Guardian 12 July 7/1 The..highly commendable idea of importing bulk grains..and passing them, tweely packaged, to cage-bird fanciers. 1973Observer 18 Nov. 36/2 ‘And no doubt, if the bride is awake and has peeped out through the curtains..,’ he speculated tweely. 1981Radio Times 7–13 Nov. 21/2 The word ‘herbs’..seems to have become associated with tweeness. |