| 释义 |
moonlighting, vbl. n.|ˈmuːnlaɪtɪŋ|
[f. moonlight n. + -ing1.]
1. The performance by night of an expedition, or of an illicit action.
1881Gentl. Mag. Jan. 67 The exciting occupation of moonlighting... The object is to capture the cattle that have gone wild [etc.]. 1883Century Mag. July 330/2 Sometimes well owners ‘torpedo’ their wells stealthily by night to avoid paying the high price charged by the company. This operation is called ‘moonlighting’.
2. spec. In Ireland, the perpetration by night of outrages on the persons or property of tenants who incurred the hostility of the Land League.
1882Pall Mall G. 20 June 2/1 As Boycotting is preferable to ‘Moonlighting’, so is parliamentary obstruction to physical force. 1892Times 9 Dec. 9/1 A gross ‘moonlighting’ outrage is reported from Kerry, where..a party of ten men entered the house of a farmer..and treated him so brutally that he is not expected to recover.
fig.1886Huxley in Life (1900) II. ix. 144 All good men and true should combine to stop this system of literary moonlighting.
3. The act or practice of moonlight v. 3. colloq. (orig. U.S.).
1957Reporter (N.Y.) 8 Aug. 11/3 He takes two or three hours off and then..departs for a second job... The practice is known as ‘moonlighting’. 1961Economist 16 Dec. 1145/2 Several attempts have been made to ban moonlighting on the ground that it robs the unemployed of jobs. 1972Times 8 Jan. 21/2 What about moonlighting? This is not the distilling of illicit liquor but the taking of a second job to keep body and soul together, or to finance one's own personal brand of extravagance.
So ˈmoonlighting ppl. a.
1886Pall Mall G. 26 Aug. 8/2 Small Moonlighting gangs. 1887Spectator 8 Oct. 1330 One of the moonlighting party that attacked Sexton's house. |