| 释义 |
piffle, v. dial. and slang.|ˈpɪf(ə)l|
Also 9 dial. pifle, pyfle.
[? Onomatopœic, with dim. ending: cf. also Sc. pifer, pyfer, in cognate sense.]
intr. To talk or act in a feeble, trifling, or ineffective way.
1847–78Halliwell, Pifle, to be squeamish or delicate. 1896Kipling Seven Seas, Mary Gloster (1897) 146 They piddled and piffled with iron; I'd given my orders for steel! 1897Sunday Times 2 Jan. 6/7 Their defence is sound, and their attack altogether good, save a tendency to ‘piffle’ in front of goal at times.
Hence ˈpiffle n., foolish or formal nonsense; twaddle; trash; also used as a derisive retort; ˈpiffler, a trifler, a twaddler; ˈpiffling vbl. n. and ppl. a.
1890Sat. Rev. 1 Feb. 152/2 If there is..a certain amount of the ‘piffle’ (to use a University phrase) thought to be incumbent on earnest young princes in our century, there is a complete absence of insincerity. 1900O. Onions Compl. Bachelor ii. 18 He'd talk a lot of piffle, wouldn't he? 1914‘High Jinks, Jr.’ Choice Slang 16 Oh piffle, an exclamation denoting inconsequence of the subject in question. 1920‘B. L. Standish’ Man on First xviii. 127 ‘The Hawks have the lead on us, still.’ ‘Piffle!’ said Cady. ‘We'll even things up to-morrow.’ 1959Elizabethan Apr. 10/1, I gave you a bar of chocolate on the train from London. So piffle! 1892Star 14 July 1 The nervousness of the other juvenile and titled piffler. 1896Westm. Gaz. 4 Dec. 2/1 Lord; but this chap is dull... Dull! he's a perfect piffler. 1864Mrs. E. Lynn Linton Lake Country 309 Pyklin an' pyflin, thoo gits nowt doon. 1894Westm. Gaz. 21 May 2/3 He seems..to have convinced himself that he is an old man, and settled down to a piffling eld. 1916‘Boyd Cable’ Action Front 17 You don't think a pifflin' little Pip-Squeak shell could go through his head? 1927Daily Express 26 July 3/4 The Bench consider that this is a piffling offence, and..that a warning would have been sufficient. 1927Observer 13 Nov. 10/4 The mechanical parts of the moving-pictures are superb, but the imaginative and intellectual parts are piffling. 1963Times 12 June 8/7 The sum involved was piffling compared with the firm's {pstlg}25m. a year turnover. 1973J. Wainwright Pride of Pigs 56 The lesser hooks being pulled in for the piffling crimes, while the big boys work the blinders. |