| 释义 |
miffy, a. colloq. and dial.|ˈmɪfɪ|
Also 8 mifty.
[f. miff n. + -y.]
Liable to ‘take a miff’; easily offended. Also transf. of a plant.
a1700B. E. Dict. Cant. Crew, Mifty, apt to take Pet, or be out of Humor. 1725in New Cant. Dict. 1739Cibber Apol. (1756) I. 221 She mutter'd out her words in a sort of mifty manner at my low opinion of her. 1810Beresford Bibliosophia, etc. 119 And very lucky it was, by the way (considering how very miffy those Ladies are said to have been). 1835–40Haliburton Clockm. (1862) 126 Well, says I, I'll tell you if you won't be miffy with me. 1850Glenny Hand-bk. Fl. Gard. 220 This [Lotus Jacobæus] is rather a delicate, or what is called a ‘miffy’ plant, being liable to damp off in winter. 1871S. Hibberd Amateur's Flower Garden 146 M[yosotis] dissitiflora..is a most valuable species for early flowers, but ‘miffy’, and therefore needing perpetual renewal. 1879G. F. Jackson Shropsh. Word-bk., Miffy, apt to take offence; touchy. 1894Blackmore Perlycross 301 The slightest change of human weather is inevitably fatal to our very miffy plant [sc. gratitude]. 1907R. J. Farrer My Rock-garden i. 19 A sound perennial in one place, soil and climate, but a miffy delicate untrustworthy creature half a mile away. 1934Gardeners' Chronicle 19 May 330/3 A few plants invariably become ‘miffy’, from no apparent reason, and die out.
Hence ˈmiffily adv., in a miffy manner; ˈmiffiness, the condition of being miffy.
1845Ford Handbk. Spain i. 84 We must never compare the sensitiveness of the punctilious hidalgo with the vulgar miffyness of the newly-enriched upstart. 1958‘A. Bridge’ Portuguese Escape 104 ‘All right, all right,’ Melplash said, rather miffily. ‘There's no rush.’ |