| 释义 |
▪ I. hab, adv. (n.) Obs. exc. dial.|hæb|
[Known in the phrases hab nab, hab or nab, from c 1550. Conjectured to represent some part of the verb have, presumably the pres. subj., OE. hæbbe, early southern ME. habbe, in conjunction with the corresp. negative form OE. næbbe, ME. nabbe; the alternative phrase habbe he (ich, we, etc.), nabbe he (ich, we, etc.) = ‘have he (we, etc.) or have he (etc.) not’, accounts fairly for the sense, and answers phonologically; but there is a long gap in the history, between the general disappearance of the habbe forms of the verb in ME. and the first examples of hab nab.
hab ȝe = have ye, if ye have, occurs in Sir Ferumbras c 1380; (h)ab is still a form of have in modern Devonshire and W. Somerset dialect (where also the phrase hab or nab is in everyday use), but is exemplified by Elworthy only in (h)ab-m, for have'en = ‘have him’, where it may be a modern phonetic change, since the dialectal change of vn to bm is widely spread, in eb'm even, seb'm seven, and the like.]
1. In the phrases hab or nab, hab nab (habs-nabs), get or lose, hit or miss, succeed or fail; however it may turn out, anyhow; at a venture, at random.
1542Udall Erasm. Apoph. (1877) 209 Put to the plounge of..habbe or nhabbe to wynne all, or to lese all. 1580Lyly Euphues (Arb.) 354 Philautus determined, hab, nab, to sende his letters. 1586J. Hooker Girald. Irel. in Holinshed II. 82/2 The citizens..shot hab or nab at random vp to the roodloft and to the chancell. 1603Florio Montaigne ii. vi, But hab nab [F. à toutes adventures], we can never take too much advantage of it. 1638Ford Lady's Trial ii. i, Better stil Habs-nabs good wincke and choose, if one must have her, The other goes without her. 1664Butler Hud. ii. iii. 990 Cyphers, Astral Characters..set down Hab-nab, at random. 1707J. Stevens tr. Quevedo's Com. Wks. (1709) 350 Such..Sayings are a Discredit to your self..As for Instance,..Hab nab, at a venture. 1831Scott Jrnl. II. 388 It is all hab-nab at a venture. 1888Elworthy W. Som. Word-bk. s.v., ‘Then you 'ont take no less?’ ‘No, I 'ont, not one varden. ‘Then I'll ab-m, hab or nab!’
2. quasi-n. In phr. at (by) hab or nab = prec.; by hab or by nab, by habs and nabs: see quots.
1530Palsgr. 833 By habbe or by nabbe, par une voye ou aultre. c1540tr. Pol. Verg. Eng. Hist. (Camd. No. 29) 93 While thone sought by happ or nap to subdue thother. a1612Harington Epigr. iv. (1633) 91 Jack Straw, with his rebellious crew, That set King, Realme and Laws at hab or nab. 1623–4Middleton & Rowley Span. Gipsy iii. ii, Take heed, for I speak not by habs and by nabs. 1685Col. Rec. Pennsylv. I. 138 Who said you have drawn up an Impeachment against President Moore at hab nab. 1877Holderness Gloss., Habs-an-nabs: Anything done in odd moments or at intervals of leisure, not continuously, is said to be done by habs-an-nabs. 1892M. C. F. Morris Yorksh. Folk-Talk 41 It is only by stealth as it were, and that ‘by habs and nabs’, as we say, that a stranger, can learn much of the true folk-talk.
▪ II. † hab, v. Obs.
[See prec.]
In hab or nab, have or not have.
1546St. Papers Hen. VIII, XI. 106 Bernardo sayth the Frenchmen will cum roundely to worke to us at ones, and that we shall habb or nab shortly.
▪ III. hab
dial. and Black var. of have. |