释义 |
backˈwoodsman [f. prec. + -man.] a. A settler in the backwoods; so backwoodswoman. Also fig.
1774Dunmore Corresp. 24 Dec. (MS.) (D.A.), The back⁓woods-men, who are Hunters like the Indians and equally ungovernable. 1798Monthly Mag. Mar. 185/1 The Back Woodsmen, as the whites all along the interior line of the states are termed, are almost gigantic. 1803T. M. Harris Jrnl. Tour 6 June (1805) (Th.), Most of the ‘Back-wood's men’, as they are called, are emigrants. 1816in Pickering Vocab. U.S. 1818Cobbett Resid. U.S. (1822) 305 The habitual disregard of comfort of an American back-woodsman. 1831Carlyle Sart. Res. ii. viii. 208 An American Backwoodsman, who had to fell unpenetrated forests. 1884Higginson in Harper's Mag. July 281/1 A plain backwoodswoman..smoking her corn-cob pipe. 1884W. James Let. 30 Sept. in R. B. Perry Thought & Char. W. J. (1935) I. 697 My yoking of Renan with Zola may sound lacking in delicacy to French ears, but as a Yankee backwoodsman it gave me a malicious pleasure. 1905E. W. Hornung Thief in Night 111 Raffles on his right hand, and the backwoodsman of letters on his left. 1958Listener 20 Nov. 839/1 The struggles of men like Kepler and Galileo against the academic backwoodsmen in the university chairs. b. In modern politics applied to a member of the House of Lords who rarely, if ever, attends meetings of that body, but is prepared on occasion to assert his political rights.
1909Daily Chron. 11 Sept. 1/5 This speech will undoubtedly encourage the backwoodsmen in the House of Lords to take strong action. 1928Observer 15 July 10/4 It has been saved by ‘backwoodsmen’ in the Lords from undergoing the indignity of being inspected..by county councillors. |