| 释义 |
gutter-snipe|ˈgʌtəsnaɪp|
Cf. gutter-bird.
1. a. dial. The common snipe, Gallinago cælestis (Northumbld. Gloss. 1893). b. The common American or Wilson's snipe, Gallinago wilsoni or delicata.
(Mr. W. H. Patterson writes from Belfast that he has known the word ‘Guttery-snipe’ in Ireland since 1850, but it is not in common use; a synonym is mire snipe.)
1874R. Ridgway Birds Ill. in Annals Lyceum N.Y. X. 383 G[allinago] gallinaria..var. Wilsonii..Common Snipe; Gutter Snipe; English Snipe.
2. a. A gatherer of refuse, such as rags and paper, from street gutters.
1869Echo 11 Feb., One of the female gutter-snipes who gain a precarious living by hunting for ‘unconsidered trifles’ in the streets of Paris. 1898N.B. Daily Mail 24 Sept. 2 It is about twelve years since I first scraped an acquaintance with the Glasgow guttersnipe.
b. A child brought up ‘in the gutter’; one of the lowest class; an urchin. Also attrib. and as adj.
c1869‘Mark Twain’ Sk. New & Old (1875) 70 Unfurl yourselves under my banner, noble savages, illustrious guttersnipes. 1882L. Wingfield Gehenna II. iii. 71 This fellow, born and bred a guttersnipe, was exceedingly romantic. 1884Century Mag. XXVIII. 557 The gutter-snipes and Arabs of the streets of Gravesend. 1907Daily Chron. 17 May 3/6 Harry Lauder, in his Glasgow gutter-snipe character. 1961Encounter Mar. 72/1 The guttersnipe ecstasies of [Henry Miller's Tropic of] Capricorn.
c. (See quot. 1877.) U.S.
1857Underhill & Thomson Elephant Club 57 He belongs to a class of beings in New York..known by the ornithological appelation of ‘gutter-snipes’. 1870J. K. Medbery Men & Myst. Wall St. 136 Gutter snipes. Curbstone brokers. 1877Bartlett Dict. Amer. (ed. 4), Gutter-snipes, a Wall Street term for brokers who do business chiefly on the sidewalk or in the street, and who are not members of the Stock Exchange. 1942Berrey & Van den Bark Amer. Thes. Slang §563/4 Guttersnipe, one who operates in a curb market.
3. Printing. (U.S.) (See quot.)
1871Amer. Encycl. Printing (ed. Ringwalt), Gutter⁓snipe, a small and narrow printed bill or poster, which is usually pasted on curbstones. |