| 释义 |
woodchuck|ˈwʊdtʃʌk|
[Alteration, by association with wood n.1, of American Indian name: cf. Cree wuchak (Watkins), otchock (J. Richardson), wejack.]
a. A common N. American species of marmot, Marmota monax, of a large stout form, which burrows in the ground, and hibernates in winter.
1674Cal. State Papers, Amer. & W. Indies (1889) VII. 581 The natural inhabitants of the woods, hills, and swamps, are..rabbits, hares, and woodchucks. 1689in Hist. Coll. Essex Inst. (Mass.) IV. 236/1 A parcell of meadow commonly called Woodchuck meadow. 1778J. Carver Trav. N. Amer. xviii. 454 The Woodchuck is a ground animal of the fur kind, about the size of a martin. 1819Warden Acc. U.S. I. 225 Marmot of Maryland, Arctomys monax,..known by the names of woodchuck and ground hog. 1855Longfellow Hiaw. vi. 125 O'er these logs we cannot clamber; Not a woodchuck could get through them. a1864Hawthorne Septimius (1883) 230 Caverns which they had dug out for their shelter, like swallows and woodchucks.
b. woodchuck hole.
1853H. D. Thoreau Jrnl. 29 Mar. (1949) V. 62 Looking at the mouth of a woodchuck-hole..[I see] that those places are sprinkled with..salt-shaped masses of frost. 1974P. Gzowski Bk. about this Country 43/2 The hay wagon had dropped into a woodchuck hole.
Senses a, b in Dict. become 1, 3. Add: 2. U.S. slang. An unsophisticated rustic; a yokel, ‘hick’; also used more generally as a term of mild contempt.
[1851J. H. Ross What I saw in N.-Y. 46 But what could a ‘greenhorn’, right from the land of woodchucks, do under such circumstances?] 1931M. Bodenheim Naked on Roller Skates i. 84, I want him to throw me up against everybody—the crummiest woodchucks..the worst fourflushers..everybody. 1973Amer. Speech 1969 XLIV. 209 Woodchuck, driver with low seniority. 1989R. Banks Affliction xxii. 314 He could go to weddings or funerals..and not look like a hick, a woodchuck, a goddamned shitkicker from the hills of Cow Hampshire. |