| 释义 |
▪ I. ˈpiker1 Now dial.
Also 4–6 pyker, 5–6 -ar.
[f. pike, var. of pick v.1 + -er1: see picker1.]
†1. A robber, a thief; in later use, a petty thief, pilferer; = picker1 1 b. Obs.
1301Pol. Poems (Rolls) II. 66 But if alwey pikers, Iak, thou wolt us maken, ther we piken but seely pans, the secte pikith poundis. 1393Langl. P. Pl. C. vi. 17 Kepe my corn in my croft fro pykers and þeeues. c1440Promp. Parv. 395/2 Pykare, lytylle theef, furculus. 1503Act 19 Hen. VII, c. 6 §1 Knowyng theves and other pikars. 1549Coverdale, etc. Erasm. Par. Philem. 31 He reconsileth vnto the Maister [Philemon] his seruaunt that had bene both a runneagate and a piker. 1549Records of Elgin I. 98 Blasfemyng of Jhone Gadderar, eldar..calland him auld pikar theyf carll.
2. An instrument to ‘pike’ or pick out dust, dirt, or obstructions; a picker. Sc.
1828Moir Mansie Wauch xii, The piker for clearing the motion-hole.
▪ II. † piker2, piquer Obs.
[f. pique, pike n.5 + -er1, or ad. F. piquier: see piquier.]
A soldier armed with a pike, a pikeman.
1590Sir J. Smyth Disc. Weapons Ded. 7 b, Their old soldiers Piquers with their piques. Ibid. 2 b, Their footmen piquers, they doo allowe for verie well armed. 1598Barret Theor. Warres iii. i. 35 The piker his armings and weapon.
▪ III. ˈpiker3 slang or dial.
[app. f. pike n.6 turnpike: cf. also dial. pikey in same sense.]
1. A vagrant, a tramp; a gipsy.
1838Holloway Dict. Provinc. 23/2 Cadgers and pikers are tramps. E. Suss. 1874Borrow Wordbk. Eng. Gypsy Lang. 215 The people called in Acts of Parliament sturdy beggars and vagrants, in the old cant language Abraham men, and in the modern Pikers.
2. Austral. A wild ox living in the bush. Also transf.
1887All Year Round 30 July 67 ‘Pikers’ are wild cattle. 1893K. Mackay Out Back (ed. 2) iii. vi. 265 Blowed if this cask ain't harder to round up nor a mallee piker. 1904‘G. B. Lancaster’ Sons o' Men 22 The grunt of broken-winded pikers came clear above the sharp crackle of undergrowth where the boys rode. 1936I. L. Idriess Cattle King vii. 62 The boy bought a teamster's cast-off bullock for two pounds. It was an old piker, worked to the very bone. 1941― Great Boomerang vii. 51 Fine upstanding beasts, the pick of a dozen stations. No old ‘pikers’ these.
▪ IV. piker5 slang (orig. U.S.).
[Cf. pike v.3 3.]
a. A cautious or timid gambler who makes only small bets; a person who takes no chances; a ‘poor sport’ or ‘poor thing’; a shirker; a lounger. Also attrib.
[1872E. Crapsey Nether Side N.Y. 98 A ‘piker’ is a tolerated collapse who makes a stray bet when he can borrow a ‘check’.] 1889[see pike v.3 3]. 1901‘H. McHugh’ John Henry 92 She put us wise to the fact that..Edgar Allen Poe was a piker compared with her. 1910W. M. Raine Bucky O'Connor 233 Do you think I'm a cheap piker? 1912R. W. Service Rhymes of Rolling Stone (1913) 96 It's the plugging away that will win you the day, So don't be a piker, old pard. 1919H. L. Wilson Ma Pettengill vii. 216 ‘I says to myself the other day: ‘I'll bet a cookie he'd like to be like me!’’ Homer was a piker, even when he made bets with himself. 1929J. Buchan Courts of Morning i. xii. 138, I don't say there mayn't be some pikers at Headquarters. 1935Z. N. Hurston Mules & Men (1970) 308 The pikers choose a card each from among those turned off to bet on. 1947Sat. Even. Post 15 Mar. 111/3 It is natural that I should have gone far beyond the sort of piker activities which characterize the average soldier. 1947D. M. Davin Gorse blooms Pale 207 ‘Don't be a piker, Mick,’ he said. 1957‘N. Culotta’ They're a Weird Mob (1958) xiii. 203 It [sc. bludger] means that you are criminally lazy..that you are a ‘piker’—a mean, contemptible, miserable individual. 1968M. Richler in R. Weaver Canad. Short Stories 2nd Ser. 156 The dirty piker he asked her to marry him he hasn't even got a job. 1969Southerly XXIX. 308 Mat saw me coming. He said: ‘We've got a piker on our hands. He reckons he hasn't got enough for a feed at La Roma. Pulling out on us he is.’ 1971H. W. Tilman In Mischief's Wake iii. x. 112 He is definitely no piker and although only 22 is one of the old school and believes in discipline. 1973K. Giles File on Death ii. 43 ‘You have that much authority?’ ‘He is no piker. I run the place... I can roughly do what I like on the business side.’
b. A person who speculates in stocks, esp. with only small sums.
1898N.Y. Jrnl. 12 Aug. 1/7 John Pettit started in as a ‘piker’. That's what the downtown brokers call a man who speculates with a few hundreds at a time instead of with thousands. 1901McClure's Mag. June 159/1 In the absence of complaisant lambs, the financial cannibals known as ‘room traders’ and ‘pikers’ tried to ‘scalp eighths’ out of each other for weeks. 1902H. L. Wilson Spenders xxxi. 360 They're used to those fifty and a hundred thousand dollar pikers down in that neighbourhood. Ibid. 365 We'll make those Federal Oil pikers think we've gnawed a corner off the subtreasury. 1942Berrey & Van den Bark Amer. Thes. Slang §563/1 Piker, a speculator on a small scale.
▪ V. piker6
Also pika.
[Etym. unknown.]
In Guyana, a plover.
1936J. Bond Birds W. Indies 101 South American Ring Plover (Charadrius collaris)... Little Ploward; Nit; Pika; Snipe. Ibid. 102 Wilson's Plover (Charadrius wilsonia)... Snipe; Little Ploward; Nit; Pika. 1958J. Carew Black Midas x. 200, I saw curlews and pikers..flying low over a rim of amber foam.
▪ VI. piker
var. picard Obs., large sailing-boat. |