| 释义 |
▪ I. minx|mɪŋks|
Also 6 mynxe, minxe, mincks, 6–7 minkes, 7–8 minks.
[Of obscure origin; possibly a corruption of minikin, with the added s not uncommon dial. in playful terms of endearment, e.g. ducks, darlings, pets: cf. Minckins in quot. 1605 s.v. minikin 1. Sense 2 agrees closely with the sense of LG. minske = G. mensch neut.]
†1. A pet dog. Also as proper name. Obs.
1542Udall tr. Erasm. Apoph. 127 b, There been litle mynxes, or puppees that ladies keepe in their chaumbers for especiall iewelles to playe withall. Ibid., When I am houngry I am a litle mynxe full of playe, and when my bealy is full, a mastife. [1605Sylvester Du Bartas ii. iii. iv. Captains 386 Milk-white Minks and Lun (Gray-bitches both, the best that ever run).]
2. a. A pert girl, hussy. Now often merely playful.
1592Nobody & Someb. E 2 b, Thus, you minx, Ile teach you ply your worke. 1594Lyly Moth. Bomb. i. iii. 17 Your minxe had no better grandfather than a Tailer. c1600Day Begg. Bednall Gr. ii. i. (1881) 31 Come, Minx, what Iewell did you give this Rogue. 1636Heywood Love's Mistr. v. i. Wks. 1874 V. 155 That Minks [Psyche] is come from hell, And heere she harbours. 1695Congreve Love for L. ii. i, How, hussy! was there ever such a provoking minx! 1706–7Farquhar Beaux' Strat. i. i, You deserve to have none, you young Minx. 1742Fielding J. Andrews iv. xiii, ‘She! a little ugly minx’, cries Slipslop, ‘leave her to me’. 1812Crabbe Tales xiii. 136 She thinks To make her fortune, an ambitious minx! 1838Dickens Nich. Nick. ix, ‘I scorn your words, Minx’, said Miss Squeers. 1861Hughes Tom Brown at Oxf. xxix, She is a dressed-up little minx, who runs after all the young men of the parish. 1882Mrs. Raven's Tempt. III. 181 We shall be sorry if this young minx brings more trouble on the Agates.
b. A lewd or wanton woman.
1598Florio, Magalda,..a trull or minxe. 1602North's Plutarch, Seneca (1612) 1214 Nero..tooke from him this minxe that knew the trickes of the occupation. 1604Shakes. Oth. iv. i. 159 This is some Minxes token. 1621Burton Anat. Mel. iii. iii. i. ii. (1651) 600 If thou be absent long, thy wife then thinks, Thou'rt drunk, at ease, or with some pretty minks. 1678Dryden Limberham i. i, They are a Couple of alluring wanton Minxes. 1728Gay Polly i. (1777) 24 And so, sir, I leave you and your minx together. 1939Joyce Finnegans Wake 80 What are you doing your dirty minx and his big treeblock way up your path? Ibid. 496 There wasn't an Archimandrite of Dane's Island and the townlands nor a minx from the Isle of Woman..would come next or nigh him. 1941J. Smiley Hash House Lingo 38 Minx, prostitute.
†c. mistress minx. Obs.
c1590Marlowe Faustus vi. 162 What are you, Mistress Minx, the seventh and last? 1592Nashe P. Penilesse (ed. 2) 10 b, Mistris Minx, a Marchants wife, that wil eate no Cherries forsooth, but when they are at twenty shillings a pound. 1671Kirkman & Head Eng. Rogue iv. (1874) 139 How now, Mrs. Minks. 1735J. Collier Art Torment. 50 Let me tell you, Mistress Minx, 'twould much better become my station, than yours.
Hence (nonce-wds.) † minx v. intr. (with it), to play the minx; minxishness, minxship, the condition or quality of a minx.
1609Bp. W. Barlow Answ. Nameless Cath. 303 The Apologue describes Venus trans-formed waiting maide, who beeing trick't vp like a Gentle-woman, mink'st it a while til she spied a Mouse, but then made it knowne shee was a Cat. 1632Massinger City Madam ii. ii, On these terms Wil your minxship be a Lady. 1885L. Wingfield Barbara Philpot I. x. 271 Was not the sex built up of foibles and minxishness?
▪ II. minx
obs. form of mink. |