| 释义 |
ˈknuckle-ˈduster
[f. knuckle n. + duster. (orig. criminals' slang, U.S.)]
A metal instrument made to cover the knuckles, so as to protect them from injury in striking, and at the same time to add force to a blow given with the fist thus covered.
1858Times 15 Feb. (Farmer), Knuckle-duster..a formidable American instrument, made of brass, which slips easily on to the four fingers of the hand, and having a projecting surface, across the knuckles, is calculated..to inflict serious injury on the person against whom it is directed. 1861All Year Round 13 July 372 But what the crew most feared, was the free use of the ‘brass knuckles’ or ‘knuckle-dusters’... These are brass finger-guards, not unlike what the Roman gladiators called the cestus; they constitute a regular portion of the equipment of an officer of the American mercantile marine. 1862Illustr. Lond. News 11 Jan. 51/2 The American ‘shoulder-hitters’, ‘knuckle-dusters’, and ‘gum-ticklers’. 1862Ann. Reg. 193 One of them struck him a fearful blow with a ‘knuckle-duster’. 1873Slang Dict. s.v., Sometimes a knuckle-duster has knobs or points projecting, so as to mutilate and disfigure the person struck.
attrib.1870Standard 15 Dec., I have been in many mobs, and have been charged both by cavalry and the knuckleduster brigade in Paris. |