| 释义 |
▪ I. whiffle, n.|ˈhwɪf(ə)l|
[f. whiff n.1 + -le.]
†1. Something light or insignificant; a trifle.
1680H. More Apocal. Apoc. 253 Such a childish trifle or sleight whiffle.
2. An act of whiffling; a slight blast of air; a veering round.
1842in Gosse Birds Jamaica (1847) 366 At first two or three whiffles make darkened tracks on the glassy waters. 1870L. M. Alcott Good Wives xxi, Amy keeps me pointing due west most of the time, with only an occasional whiffle round to the south. 1909Begbie Cage x, The whiffle in the air grew more distinct.
3. A soft sound as of gently moving air or water.
1972F. Ford Atush Inlet i. 9 Their subdued cries could be heard faintly against the gentle whiffle of falling water. 1976J. Crosby Snake (1977) xxx. 179 She listened to..the soft whiffle of her breathing.
4. Comb., as whiffle-ball U.S., a light hollow ball used for playing a variety of baseball; also, a game played with such a ball; cf. Wiffle; whiffle-minded a. (U.K. and U.S. dial.), changeable, fickle.
[1931Official Gaz. (U.S. Patent Office) 17 Nov. 573/2 Whiffle. For game apparatus of the type having ball receiving and discharging mechanism.] 1965F. Knebel Night of Camp David xvii. 273 The boys of Saybrook were playing whiffle ball. 1970New Yorker 11 July 20 Kids playing with whiffleballs and baseballs. 1976Woodward & Bernstein Final Days 242 He would get a whiffleball game going on the White House tennis court. 1980N.Y. Sunday News Mag. 2 Mar. 12/2, I would chase the whiffleball across the street. 1985T. Boyle Only Dead know Brooklyn xvii. 133 Clusters of Puerto Ricans..swung plastic bats at whiffle balls.
1902H. F. Day Pine Tree Ballads 47 Hate to act so whiffle-minded, but my father used to say, ‘Men would sometimes change opinions; mules would stick the same old way’. 1905in Eng. Dial. Dict. VI. 456/1 'e's so w'iffle-minded—'e dunna know 'is own mind two minutes together.
▪ II. whiffle, v.1|ˈhwɪf(ə)l|
Also 6 wyffle, 7 whifle.
[f. whiff v.1 + -le. Cf. Flem. weyfelen ‘vacillare’ (Kilian).]
1. intr. To blow in puffs or slight gusts; hence, to veer or shift about (of the wind; hence, of a ship). Often fig. or in fig. context: To vacillate, to be variable or evasive. Now chiefly dial.
1568[see whiffling ppl. a.1 1]. 1671R. Bohun Wind 56 Near mountainous Islands, or shoares, they [sc. winds] whiffle up and down, and shift from one point of the Compasse to another. 1697W. Dampier Voy. I. 413 The Wind had been whiffling about from one part of the Compass to another. 1699Ibid. II. iii. 61 If the Winds also whiffle about to the South. 1737Ozell Rabelais iii. xxxv. 236 note, A Man who is continually turning and whiffling about to all the Points of the Compass. 1768Tucker Lt. Nat. (1834) I. 155 Were we to give a full latitude to sympathy, we should whiffle about with every wind. 1801Spirit Publ. Jrnls. IX. 370 She yaws and whiffles about like a weathercock. 1812Tennant Anster F. iv. liv, The whizzing wind..whiffling through the wooden tubes so small. 1840[Lady Bury] Hist. Flirt xii, They whiffle about like a weathercock. 1854A. E. Baker Northampt. Gloss. s.v., The wind whiffles about so. 1881Nation (N.Y.) XXXII. 400 Who like a manly man, will not whiffle, or quibble, or evade. 1903F. Harrison in Westm. Gaz. 24 Nov. 1/3 If he finally whiffle round to tax foreign food.
2. trans. To blow or drive with or as with a puff of air. Often fig.
1641Trapp Theol. Theol. viii. 335 Whiffled and tossed too and fro with every wind of doctrine. 1655tr. Sorel's Com. Hist. Francion iv. 3, I so whiffled him on the face with my Torch [orig. je lui passe le flambeau par devant le nez] that I burned off allmost all his beard. 1660S. Fisher Rusticus ad Acad. Wks. (1679) 152 Like men in a Ship that are whiffled up and down in a troubled Sea. 1664H. More Expos. 7 Epist. ix. 163 Such as would whiffle away all these Truths by resolving them into a mere moral Allegorie. 1684Howe Redeemer's Tears Pref., Swollen with the conceit, that they have whiffled Christianity away, quite off the stage, with their profane breath. 1817M. Edgeworth Ormond xxvi, No easy dupe, to be whiffled off and on, the sport of a coquette. 1843Miall in Nonconf. III. 225 The world is not destined to be whiffled out of its own independent reason by a handful of priests and statesmen.
b. fig. To dismiss by evasion; to say or state evasively.
1654Vilvain Theorem. Theol. Suppl. 227 This he whiffles off slightly, that 'tis a Parabol. 1676Marvell Mr. Smirke 43 He whiffles, those were the Jewish Ceremonies.
3. intr. To move lightly as if blown by a puff of air; to flicker or flutter as if stirred by the wind. Often fig.
1662Hibbert Body Div. ii. 26 Any anabaptistical humorist, who hath a company of phanatique toyes whiffling about his understanding. a1680Glanvill Sadducismus ii. (1726) 452 A mind that useth to whiffle up and down in the levities of fancy. a1774Harte Poems, Eulogius 546 Just as int'rest whiffled on his mind, He Anatolians left, or Thracians join'd. 1817J. Gilchrist Intell. Patrim. 148 Better chirp with the cricket, or chatter with the sparrow, than whiffle round this eternal monotony of futility. 1818Hazlitt Engl. Comic Writers viii. (1907) 216 He whiffles about the stage with considerable volubility. 1866Mrs. H. Wood St. Martin's Eve xvi, Suddenly the flame inside began to whiffle. 1870Julie P. Smith Widow Goldsmith's Dau. xxxvii, She would whiffle and whirl up and down like a withered leaf.
4. intr. To talk idly; to trifle. dial. (See also whiffling ppl. a.1 3.)
1706Phillips (ed. Kersey), To Whiffle, to trick one out of a thing, to stand trifling. 1847Halliwell, Whiffle, to talk idly. North.
5. intr. To make a light whistling sound; trans. to utter with such a sound.
1832Fraser's Mag. VI. 262 The two strangers whiffled and hissed together, in an unknown very rapid tongue. 1863Cowden Clarke Shaks. Char. xvii. 448 Master Silence whiffling his scraps of ballads. 1893Daily News 13 Feb. 6/1 Where a keen cold blast whiffles and blusters about the black and sullen monsters. 1909Ibid. 14 Sept. 3 When a bear comes ‘whiffling’ about your snow hut. 1915Glasgow Herald 9 Aug. 8 Shells flew ‘whiffling’ over our heads.
†6.
a. trans. To smoke (tobacco).
b. absol. To drink. Obs. (Cf. whiff v.1 3, 4.)
1683Tryon Way to Health 165 The constant and common whiffling it [sc. tobacco]. a1693Urquhart's Rabelais iii. Prol. 15 Those..importunate sots who..constrain an easy, good-natured fellow to whiffle, quaff, carouse [orig. trinquer, voire caros et alluz].
Hence ˈwhiffling vbl. n.1
a1677Barrow Serm. v. Wks. 1687 I. 65 Such as are..versatile whifflings and dodgings. 1681J. Scott Chr. Life iv. 367 Too much whifling up and down in the little levities of Fancy. 1692L'Estrange Josephus, Antiq. vii. ix. Wks. (1702) 203 In her Course, upon the whifling of the Air, a snagged Bough of a Tree took hold of his Hair. 1841J. F. Cooper Deerslayer I. i. 23, I would carry the gal off to the Mohawk by force, make her marry me in spite of her whiffling. 1866Mrs. H. Wood St. Martin's Eve xvi, The whiffling of the flame was remedied now. 1882‘F. Anstey’ Vice Versa iv, This infernal whiffling and sniffing, sir, I will not put up with. 1906Springfield (Mass.) Weekly Republ. 18 Oct. 3 This outcome of a week of doubt and whiffling will be viewed with mixed emotions. 1984Daily Tel. 13 Feb. 12/5 When first I heard these whifflings, a couple of years ago, I thought they must be satiric.
▪ III. ˈwhiffle, v.2 nonce-wd.
[Back-formation f. whiffler1.]
intr. To act as a whiffler.
1857Borrow Romany Rye App. viii, Nobody can use his fists without being taught the use of them,..no more than any one can ‘whiffle’ without being taught by a master of the art... The last of the whifflers hanged himself about a fortnight ago..there being no demand for whiffling since the discontinuation of Guildhall banquets;..let any one take up the old chap's sword and try to whiffle. |