释义 |
▪ I. minnie, n.1 Sc. and north. dial.|ˈmɪnɪ| Also 6 mynnye, -nie, 8–9 minny. [Of obscure origin; perh. a child's alteration of mammy.] A familiar word for mother.
1500–20Dunbar Poems lxxv. 16 Sen that I borne wes of my mynnye, I nevir wowit weycht bot ȝow. 1600W. Watson Decacordon (1602) 144 A lacke what ailes my minnie at me heigh hoe. 1681S. Colvil Whigs Supplic. (1751) 158 My Minnie hath the lave on't. 1790Burns Tam Glen iv, My minnie does constantly deave me, And bids me beware o' young men. 1816Scott Antiq. xl, Light loves I may get mony a ane, But minnie ne'er anither. 1858Kingsley Andromeda, etc., Oubit 3 My minnie bad me bide at hame until I won my wings. ▪ II. minnie, minny, v. Sc. and north. dial.|ˈmɪnɪ| [f. minnie n.1] trans. To mother; to act as a mother towards (a lamb); to find (a lamb) its mother; also refl., of a lamb: to find (itself) a mother.
1772in Sc. Nat. Dict. (1965) VI. 283/1 Four or six lambs broke off from the flock of eild sheep..and run [sic] to the ewes, and minnied or mothered themselves by sucking. 1825Jamieson Suppl., s.v., It is given as a proof of the accuracy of a shepherd's acquaintance with his flock..that, after the lambs have been separated from the ewes, he can minnie ilka lamb. 1861F. O. Morris Rec. Animal Sagacity & Character 117 There was not a single ewe..which did not minny her lambs—that is, assume the character of mother towards the offspring from which she had been separated. ▪ III. minnie, -nikin var. ff. minnow, minikin. |