| 释义 |
little man
1. The little finger. Obs. exc. dial.
c1290S. Eng. Leg. I. 308/310 Þe deuel..wolde fain henten heom bi þe polle with ‘luttle man’, is leste finguer. c1475Pict. Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 753/3 Hic auricularis, the lythylman. 1888in Sheffield Gloss.
2. a. A small landowner or capitalist; a person working or producing on a small scale; a small craftsman or tradesman; a local man available to do light work.
1811in W. Marshall Review Repts. Board Agric., East. 88 A little man may as well have nothing allotted to him as have it so far off. 1820Lamb Elia Ser. i. Two Races of Men, I grudge the saving of a few idle ducats, and think I am fallen into the society of lenders, and little men. 1825H. Wilson Mem. IV. 103 That little man in St. James's Street, who sells box-combs. 1890W. Booth In Darkest Eng. vi. 214 Would it not be possible..to establish..a Poor Man's Bank..doing for the ‘little man’ what all the banks should do for the ‘big man’? 1891S. C. Scrivener Our Fields & Cities 29 They have a very strong objection to a ‘little man’ getting three acres, or less, with or without a cow. 1937Ann. Reg. 1936 ii. 63 The potential customers being most numerous among the ‘little men’, i.e., small shopkeepers and owners of one-man businesses. 1952Economist 30 Aug. 514/1 Diversified investment buying by the general public, especially by the ‘little man’. 1959Motor Manual (ed. 36) xiii. 269 For cars so built it is seldom possible to have an adequate towing bracket made up by the ‘little man round the corner’ who happens to have a welding plant and some iron. 1962Guardian 12 Dec. 4/4 What most of us have to do is to find a ‘little man’ who will oblige with a bit of painting in his spare time. 1966Listener 15 Sept. 382/2 The Bideford ‘little man’ who fears competition.
b. The undistinguished and ordinary ‘man in the street’.
1933E. Sutton tr. H. Fallada (title) Little man, what now? 1935New Statesman 8 June 857/1 The old noli-me-tangere John Bull has disappeared, and his place has been taken by the all-enduring Little Man. 1936‘G. Orwell’ Keep Aspidistra Flying iii. 64 To turn into the typical little bowler-hatted sneak—Strube's ‘little man’. 1941Auden New Year Let. iii. 52 The hitherto-unconscious creed Of little men who half succeed. 1946R.A.F. Jrnl. May 162 Joe represents the typical ‘little man’ in blue, doomed to a lowly rank. 1952M. Laski Village xiii. 187 The element of the ordinary man, the little man, taking matters into his own hands. 1960Times 28 Sept. 15/4 Its central episode is the rebellion of a ‘little man’ against the anonymity and dreariness of his life. 1975Times 2 Jan. 13/3 Mr [Charlie] Chaplin's indomitable little man beset by adversity.
3. Sc.
a. (See quot. 1835.)
b. (See quot. c 1880).
1835Carrick Laird of Logan (1841) 153 Amongst the servants in the employment of our Scottish farmers. There is the ‘muckle man’ and the ‘little man’. c1880Sketchy Mem. Eton 16 (Barrère) He called the footman (or little man, as was the generic term for this class of domestic at my tutor's).
4. pl. Fairies, ‘little folk’.
1850Allingham Poems 87 Up the airy mountain Down the rushy glen, We daren't go a hunting For fear of little men.
5. A young male child: see man n.1 4 f. |