| 释义 |
ˈMay-game
[May n.3]
1. a. pl. The merrymaking and sports associated with the first of May. b. sing. A set performance or entertainment in the May-day festivities.
1549Coverdale, etc. Erasm. Par. 1 Tim. 8 In such maner of apparaill, as the commen sorte of vnfaithfull women are wonte to goe forth vnto weddynges and maygames. 1583R. Robinson Anc. Order Pr. Arthur L 4 b, A May game was of Robyn-hood, and of his traine that time. 1589Greene Menaphon (Arb.) 56 He was chosen Lord of the May game, king of their sports, and ringleader of their reuils. 1641Hinde J. Bruen iii. 12 The holy Sabbaths of the Lord were..spent..in May-poles and May-games. 1888Child Eng. & Sc. Ball. III. 46 Maid Marian is a personage in the May-game and morris.
2. transf. and gen. Merrymaking, sport, frolic, entertainment; foolish or extravagant action or performance, foolery.
1571Golding Calvin on Ps. lxxiii. 1 He cryed out..that the endever of living well was but a Maygame. 1660R. Coke Power & Subj. 50 It were a fine may-game to be a King, if Kings might make their Will the rule of their actions. 1768–74Tucker Lt. Nat. (1834) I. 357 The vulgar [have] their..coarse jokes, and may-games. 1843Carlyle Past & Pr. iii. xiii, Life was never a May-game for men.
3. An object of sport, jest, or ridicule; a laughing-stock. Also in phr. to make a May-game of.
1569J. Sandford tr. Agrippa's Van. Artes 158 A manifest foolishnes, and a maie game to the multitude. 1583Fulke Defence iv. 137 Whereas in one translation we vse the worde Generall for Catholike, you make a greate maygame of it. 1644Quarles Barnabas & B. 253 What is man but..the spoil of time, the may-game of fortune? a1739Jarvis Quix. i. iii. xxv. (1885) 146 She..makes a jest and a may⁓game of everybody.
4. attrib., as May-game king, May-game lord, May-game morris, May-game pastime; also as adj. with the sense ‘trivial’.
1586J. Hooker Hist. Irel. in Holinshed II. 79/2 This maigame lord, named indeed Peter (in scorne Perkin) Warbecke. 1602I. R[hodes] Answ. Rom. Rime C 3, Your May-game pastimes. 1614Raleigh Hist. World iv. ii. §4. 148 In this sort came the Maygame-King into the field, incumbred with a most vnnecessary traine of Strumpets. 1653Dell Tryal Spirits 86 School Doctors, that is, Trifling or May-game Doctors. 1888Child Eng. & Sc. Ball. III. 45 The relation of Robin Hood, John, and the Friar to the May-game morris is obscure.
Hence † Maygamester, one who takes part in May-games.
c1585R. Browne Answ. Cartwright 37 Drunkardes, Maygamesters, blasphemers. |