| 释义 |
Irishman|ˈaɪərɪʃmən|
Pl. -men.
[f. Irish a. + man. Originally two words.]
1. A native of Ireland; a man of Irish race.
c1205[see Irish a. 1]. a1300K. Horn 1004 He dude writes sende Into yrlonde After kniȝtes liȝte Irisse men to fiȝte. 1387Trevisa Higden (Rolls) I. 347 Irische men reccheþ nouȝt of castelles. 1480Caxton Descr. Brit. 32 They sailled in to Irlande and toke to theyr wyues Irisshmens doughtres. 1547Boorde Introd. Knowl. iii. (1870) 131, I am an Iryshe man, in Irland I was borne. 1672Petty Pol. Anat. xiii. in Tracts (1769) 375 An Englishman was not punishable for killing an Irishman. 1724Swift Drapier's Lett. Wks. 1761 III. 111 The arrival of an Irish man to a country town. 1839Carlyle Chartism iv. 18 Let no true Irishman, who believes and sees all this, despair by reason of it. 1848Bright Sp. Irel. 25 Aug. (1868) 159/1 Driven forth by poverty, Irishmen emigrate in great numbers.
2. wild Irishman. (a) Hist. One of the Wild Irish: see Irish B. 1. (b) Hist. The familiar name of the Irish mail train between London and Holyhead on the London and North Western Railway. (c) A thorny New Zealand shrub, Discaria toumatou; also called matagouri and tumatakuru. Also ellipt. as Irishman.
1857C. W. Richmond in Richmond–Atkinson Papers (1960) I. vi. 317 Besides the grasses there is flax, tutu and wild Irishman. 1860S. Butler in H. F. Jones Samuel Butler (1919) I. 80 There is a large quantity of Irishman (the name given to a thorny shrub which, in the back country, attains to a considerable size)... A glorious lurid flare marks the ignition of an Irishman. 1862Times 27 Mar., To facilitate still further the rapid progress of the Irish express train (better known as the Wild Irishman) between Holyhead and London. 1883B'ham Weekly Post 1 Sept. 1/5, I have just seen the ‘Wild Irish⁓man’ dash through the station. 1883[see tumata-kuru]. 1896Australasian 28 Aug. 407/5 It seems uncivil to a whole nation—another injustice to Ireland—to call a bramble a wild Irishman. 1941O. Duff N.Z. Now i. 1 If a wild Irishman is grown in a hothouse it loses its spines and develops soft leaves. 1966G. W. Turner Eng. Lang. Austral. & N.Z. viii. 168 The shrub matogowrie, called Irishman in early writings, is especially common in the South Island where Maori influence is least strong and anglicization is most likely.
3. Irishman's hurricane Naut. slang, a dead calm (see also quot. 1961); cf. Irish hurricane (Irish a. 2 c); Irishman's promotion, rise, reduced wages; cf. Irish a. 4 (quots. 1892, 1903).
1827J. F. Cooper Red Rover III. v. 107 There was an Irishman's hurricane, right up and down, for a day. 1873‘Vanderdecken’ Yachts & Yachting xxxi. 264 She is like a hurrah's nest, or a billyboy caught in an Irishman's hurricane! 1889Barrère & Leland Dict. Slang I. 488/1 Irishman's rise,..wages reduced. 1902C. J. C. Hyne Mr. Horrocks, Purser ii. 27 I've a sort of memory that you got Irishman's promotion for a bit of a mistake just recently. 1915Truth 25 Aug. 295/2 The utmost the surveyor might expect from most corporations would be an Irishman's rise. 1957A. MacNab Bulls of Iberia xiii. 140 He..asked for a job as a picador. His offer was accepted immediately—on condition that he would stand guarantee for any horses that might be killed under him! This would have been an Irishman's rise, even in those days when they used worn-out horses from the U.S.A. at five dollars a head. 1961F. H. Burgess Dict. Sailing 121 Irishman's hurricane, a slight drizzle in a calm. 1972Times 29 Sept. 15/4 For many low-paid workers with children, an extra {pstlg}2 a week may be no more than an ‘Irishman's rise’. |