| 释义 |
▪ I. † tweeze, n. Obs.
Also pl. tweeses, twizes, twises; rare in sing.
[Aphetic f. etweese (1657) = etuys, etuis, pl. of etui, etwee. See also twee1.
The form-history in Eng. is not quite clear, but app. the plural form etuis, etwees was taken also as sing. and spelt etweese, and this aphetized to tweese.]
A case of small instruments, an etui; also pl. instruments kept or carried about in a small case. Occas. a pair (= set) of tweezes.
1622Mabbe tr. Aleman's Guzman d'Alf. ii. (1623) 130 Whether shee would buy a very fine paire of twizes which we..had cut from another gentlewomans girdle..having ground and whet them..and fitted them with a case. 1623–4Middleton & Rowley Span. Gipsy ii. i, Take anything.., purses, knives, handkerchers, rosaries, tweezes, any toy. 1632Sherwood s.v. Tweese, A Surgeons tweese (or box of instruments). [cf.1611Cotgr., Pennarol de Chirurgien, a Chirurgians Case or Ettuy; the box wherein he carries his Instruments.] 1638Ford Fancies i. ii, I will..break the teeth of thy combs, poison thy camphire-balls,..be-tallow thy tweezes. c1645Howell Lett. i. xvii. 32, I send you..the French Bever and Tweeses you writ for. 1665Boyle Occas. Refl. iv. xv. (1848) 255 Drawing a little Penknife out of a pair of Twises I then chanced to have about me. 1672Descr. Lake Geneva in Misc. Cur. (1708) III. 409 There are found..Knives, and Needles as thick as Bodkins of tweeses. 1681W. Robertson Phraseol. Gen. (1693) 206 A barber's tweese, or case of instruments.
▪ II. tweeze, v.|twiːz|
[Back-formation from tweezers n. pl.]
trans. To pull out (hair) with tweezers. Also, to pull as with tweezers. Hence ˈtweezing vbl. n.
1932V. Woolf Common Reader 2nd Ser. 153 He..tweezed out hairs with a silver tweezer. 1956Sun (Baltimore) 13 June b12/4 Before tweezing, apply to brow area a soft cloth wrung out in hot water. 1968B. Hines Kestrel for Knave 29 So he tweezed the lashes between his finger and thumb and drew the lid down. 1979M. McMullen But Nellie was so Nice i. i. 9 The mouth was scarlet, the brows tweezed to an almost invisible line. 1982Chicago Sun-Times 20 Nov. 19 When Gordon finished, makeup artist Gloria Percival tweezed Schaefer's brows. |