| 释义 |
madcap, n. and a.|ˈmædkæp|
[f. mad a. + cap n.; cf. fuddlecap, huffcap.]
A. n.
†a. In early use, a madman, maniac (obs. rare).
b. One who acts like a maniac; a reckless, wildly impulsive person. In recent use often applied playfully to young women of lively and impulsive temperament.
1589Greene Sp. Masquerado C 3 b, This crue of popish Madcaps. 1591Shakes. Two Gent. ii. v. 8 Come-on you mad-cap: Ile to the Ale-house with you. 1599Hayward 1st Pt. Hen. IV 19 There was..Sir Hugh Linne, a good souldier, but a very mad-cap. 1607Dekker Northward Hoe iv. Wks. 1873 III. 57 What mad-caps haue you in your house [Bedlam]. 1667Dryden Secret Love iii. i. (1668) 34 Lord, that such a Mad-Cap as I should ever live to be jealous! 1711Countrey-Man's Let. to Curat 12 There were..some Mad-caps alias High-Flyers, in the Council that opposed the granting of it. 1861Thackeray Four Georges ii. (1876) 53, I should like to have seen that noble old madcap [Peterborough]. 1869Phillips Vesuv. ii. 12 To be singing when Vesuvius was thundering..was not unfitting the imperial madcap. 1885Mabel Collins Prettiest Woman i, On the boards she was the merriest, gayest, madcap in the world.
B. attrib. and adj. Mad, ‘crack-brained’; reckless, wildly impulsive.
1588Shakes. L.L.L. ii. i. 215 That last is Beroune, the mery mad-cap Lord. 1598E. Guilpin Skial. (1878) 27 When thou hast read this mad-cap stuffe. 1619Fletcher M. Thomas i. iii, Dor. And is your hate so mortall? Mar. Not to his person, But to his qualities, his mad-cap follies. 1807W. Irving Salmag. (1824) 274 The thoughtless flow of mad-cap spirits. 1852Thackeray Esmond iii. ii, The mad⁓cap girl ran up to her mother. 1887Bowen Virg. Ecl. ix. 43 Let the madcap billows in thunder break on the shore. 1893Vizetelly Glances Back ii. xxxiii. 233 Madcap republicans bent on disturbing the emperor's pleasure. |