| 释义 |
ˈway-back, adv., a., and n. colloq. (chiefly U.S., Austral., and N.Z.).
Forms: see below.
[f. way adv. + back adv.]
A. adv. Usu. written way back.
1. Far away; in or from a remote rural area.
1855Merry's Museum XXIX. 58, I did not know that there was such a fine Magazine,..for I live ‘way back in the woods’. 1884Boston Globe Oct., His unkempt hair, gawky appearance, and homespun suit..all bespoke the citizen from wayback. 1889Kipling From Sea to Sea (1899) II. xxvi. 28 ‘You'll see the salmon-wheels 'fore long,’ said a man who lived ‘way back on the Washoogle’. 1916G. Thornton Wowser 85 The condition of those living ‘wayback’. 1930M. R. E. Blair By Pacific Waters ii. 12 I'm sure they are getting a storm way-back. 1936‘F. Gerald’ Millionaire in Memories iii. 106 Blackall was much the same as any other township ‘way back’. 1976National Observer (U.S.) 6 Nov., ‘We needed something to let people know that there was a church there,’ says Rector Mart Gayland Pool. ‘We sat way back on a slope near a golf course, and out facility looked more like a bowling alley or a Kinney shoe store.’
2. A long time ago; from way back, since a long time ago; hence, through and through.
1887Lantern (New Orleans) 30 July 3/3 Nick is a walker from way back. 1889‘Mark Twain’ Yankee at Crt. Arthur xxxi, He thinks he's a Sheol of a farmer; thinks he's old Grayback from Wayback. 1889Kipling From Sea to Sea (1899) I. xxii. 432, I am an American by birth—an American from way back. 1892‘Mark Twain’ Amer. Claimant 167, I tell you, he's an artist from way back! 1907Daily Chron. 2 Sept. 2/7 The Whitmans were American ‘from way-back’. 1923J. H. Cook 50 Yrs. Old Frontier iii. 227 This occurred ‘way back’, when the Indians had no horses. 1939Country Life 11 Feb. p. xxxvi/1 The ‘Rule for Anchoresses’, written way back in the thirteenth century. 1948Sporting Mirror 19 Nov. 6/2 Way back in September I said that Norwich City have got what it takes and would be a power this season. 1969J. D. A. Widdowson in Halpert & Story Christmas Mumming in Newfoundland 218 The real mummers we used to have way back. 1970J. Lennon in J. Wenner Lennon Remembered (1972) 144 He not only knew my work, and the lyrics that I had written but he also understood them, and from way back. 1978R. Hill Pinch of Snuff ix. 87 ‘You know Burkill, sir?’ he asked. ‘From way back.’
B. adj. Usu. written way-back, wayback.
1. Of long ago.
1885Santa Fé Weekly New Mexican 10 Sept. 1/2 A writer in giving a description of the plains of Kansas in the ‘way back’ time, speaks of it as a ‘wilderness of grasses’. 1962Observer 17 June 3/6 [U.S. writer] He had an ancestor cult. There was a painting of a way-back ancestor wearing a woollen waistcoat.
2. Hailing from, or located in, a remote rural area.
1887New York Ev. Post 4 Oct., The way-back delegates, those from the farms and the small villages. 1918Blackw. Mag. May 608/2 There was a fundi..who used to let on that the pictures on some vases..were done from wayback Masai. 1933Bulletin (Sydney) 24 May 21/2 Mrs. Smallbeer sold her very wayback pub. 1950K. S. Prichard Winged Seeds xv. 165 Sally understood that this visit to a way-back station was an experience for them. 1951Landfall V. 278 Miss Dane..imagined herself a pioneer of progress in a wayback community. 1973M. Carnegie Friday Mount 218 No wonder some of the way-back towns had that look.
C. n. Form as for the adj.
1. A person inhabiting or coming from a remote district.
1890E. Custer Following Guidon xvii. 261 We were, in Western terms, ‘waybacks from wayback’. 1912R. S. Tait Scotty Mac, Shearer 125 At a group in front of him a thimble-rigger was expending much eloquence to induce a party of waybacks to relieve him of his surplus cash. 1924Contemp. Rev. Aug. 236 The well-known resourcefulness and sense of location of the present-day way-backs of Australia..are due..to lessons taught the pioneers by the natives.
2. Remote rural areas; spec. the Australian outback.
1890[see prec. sense]. 1901F. J. Gillen Diary 5 Oct. (1968) 277 The station is built on a stony rise on the western bank of the Newcastle and like most stock stations in the ‘wayback’ there has been no attempt made to improve the appearance of the surroundings. 1925H. H. Cook Far Flung v. 39 Some 50 miles in the ‘way⁓back’. 1933Bulletin (Sydney) 27 Sept. 20/4 Waltzing Matilda in the waybacks of S.A. I came upon a well⁓found homestead. |