| 释义 |
‖ maverick, n.|ˈmævərɪk|
Also mavorick.
[Samuel A. Maverick (1803–1870), a Texas cattle-owner who left the calves of his herd unbranded.]
1. U.S. In the cattle-breeding districts, a calf or yearling found without an owner's brand.
1867in J. G. McCoy Hist. Sk. Cattle Trade (1940) 83 The term maverick which was formerly applied to unbranded yearlings is now applied to every calf which can be separated from the mother cow. 1872Schele de Vere Americanisms 211. 1887 F. Francis Jun. Saddle & Moccasin 172 Nowadays you don't dare to clap a brand on a mavorick even. 1894Remington in Harper's Mag. Feb. 356 In a dell in the forest we espied some ‘mavericks’, or unbranded stock. 1942S. Kennedy Palmetto Country 223 Most likely candidates for rustling are unbranded calves and cattle, called ‘mavericks’ in the West. 1974G. Jenkins Bridge of Magpies xv. 229 Cowpunchers riding herd and trying to rope the most bloody-minded maverick that ever cut loose on the plains of Texas.
2. transf.
a. A masterless person; one who is roving and casual; an independent person; an individualist; applied spec. in the U.S. to a politician who will not affiliate with a regular political party. Also attrib. in sense ‘independent, unattached’.
1886Calif. Maverick (San Francisco) 13 Feb. 4/1 People would say, ‘He holds maverick views’, meaning that his views were untainted by partisanship in the matter. 1892Kipling Life's Handicap 195 A very muzzy Maverick smote his sergeant on the nose. 1901McClure's Mag. Dec. 147 Occasionally they found a maverick legislator, or traded for one. 1903Critic XLIII. 358/2, I felt as if I..for once was a happy maverick soul in the world at large. 1948Manch. Guardian Weekly 8 Jan. 4/1 A few maverick liberals. 1948Chicago Daily News 11 June 16/7 One Republican Senator, and not by any means a conspicuous maverick, pointed out that the Senate might have acted. 1954Manch. Guardian Weekly 30 Dec. 8/3 His fellow ‘maverick’..also appeared to have gone into not uncomfortable shadows. 1957Times Lit. Suppl. 8 Mar. 1/3 A contrast of Maverick with Movement verse will illustrate this... To Mavericks, Movement verse expresses ‘antagonism towards sensibility and sentiment’. 1957Oxf. Mag. 17 Oct. 22/2 The story is not just of local boy making good, but also, and more significantly, of maverick making friends. 1963Listener 17 Jan. 115/1 Neither the novelists of the central tradition of English writing, nor the great Mavericks of the nineteenth century, whose strong apprehension of evil forced them to break through the domestic web in which they wished to remain, had any clear theological pattern in which to embody their sense of evil. 1968P. Oliver Screening Blues 18 Maverick lines that move from blues to blues are given new rhymes and new meanings by their juxtaposition with other ideas, while they retain the quality of surprise. 1973Radio Times 4–10 Aug. 8 Ruth Inglis met the 77-year-old maverick zoologist at his Oxford base.
b. ‘Western U.S. Anything dishonestly obtained, as a saddle, mine, or piece of land’ (Cent. Dict. 1890).
Hence ˈmaverick v. (a) trans., ‘to seize or brand (an animal) as a maverick; hence, to take possession of without any legal claim; appropriate dishonestly or illegally’ (Cent. Dict.). (b) intr., to stray or wander like a maverick.
1883in Amer. Speech (1958) May 141 The Indians stole them..and the Texans ‘mavericked’ the unbranded. 1910W. M. Raine Bucky O'Connor 203 It hadn't penetrated my think-tank that this was your hacienda when I came mavericking in. 1948J. K. Rollinson Wyoming Cattle Trails 139 The artful practice of burning or working over brands was resorted to, with honest mavericking as a side line. |