| 释义 |
way out, adv., a., and n. orig. U.S.
[f. way adv. + out adv.]
A. adv. Far out, far away. colloq.
1868G. A. Custer Let. 20 Feb. in E. Custer Following Guidon (1890) 53 They had braved the perils..in order to bring us, 'way out here, news from our loved ones. 1882Congress. Rec. 9 Mar. 1758/1 Instead of that they go way out to Peoria, Illinois. 1933L. I. Wilder Farmer Boy xvi. 119 This country..goes 'way out beyond Kansas..down to the Pacific Ocean. 1944M. Laski Love on Supertax xi. 102 After a..journey by 'bus, Clarissa alighted way out on the North Circular Road. 1977Chicago Tribune 2 Oct. v. 2/2 There is more clout in the Senate, you see, than way out west away from the mainstream.
B. adj. Also way-ˈout.
1. Far removed from reality or from convention; extreme; progressive, avant-garde, advanced. slang.
1958G. Lea Somewhere there's Music xix. 164, I turn on [sc. smoke marijuana] a little and I get way out. 1959Encounter June 42/2 The ego-ideal of the Beatnik is the ‘cool hipster’—..the man who is ‘way out’. 1959N. Mailer Advts. for Myself (1961) 296 Mine [sc. my hypothesis] is interesting, mine is way out (on the avenue of the mystery along the road to ‘It’) but still I am just one cat in a world of cool cats. 1961Life (Internat. ed.) 8 May 44 The way-out world of micro-electronics. 1964J. Dunbar in Hamblett & Deverson Generation X 179 One thing I like about Cambridge, people don't try to be too way out. At places like Oxford, or Reading, I've seen blokes going around barefoot and wearing ear-rings. 1967Times 13 Apr. 23 The ‘way out’ field of nuclear fusion. 1972J. Philips Vanishing Senator iii. iii. 162 Vardon thought up a way-out scheme to commit a murder. 1979Dædalus Spring 141 These [sc. Radio Città in Bologna and Radio Alice] were ‘way-out’ examples of local radio. 1982Barr & York Official Sloane Ranger Handbk. 38/1 She would not wear Art Nouveau jewels (too way out).
2. Greatly mistaken. slang.
1959M. Summerton Small Wilderness viii. 112 You're way out, Puss. If anybody has got a perfect alibi..it's Cliff. 1965New Statesman 7 May 721/3, I would not presume to argue with Edward Hyams on matters botanical, but he is way out on snakes.
C. n. A person who holds extreme or unconventional views.
1968Manch. Guardian Weekly 17 Oct. 19 The drop-outs have copped out, the redskins have bitten the dust, the way-outs have faced the nitty-gritty (truth). 1970Encycl. Sci. Suppl. (Grolier) 158 Two years ago we were considered way-outs. Nobody knew what conservation meant.
Hence way-ˈoutness slang, unconventionality.
1965Tablet 27 Nov. 1327/1 Some way-outness prevents him from acquiescing in the wisdom of acceptance. 1968R. V. Beste Repeat Instructions i. 10 That's the kind of way-outness that should have made Security suspicious. 1979S. Smith Survivor xvii. 185 Young people of all degrees of ‘way-outness’. |