| 释义 |
▪ I. puffing, vbl. n.|ˈpʌfɪŋ|
[f. puff v. + -ing1.]
The action of the verb puff: and derived senses.
1. a. The action of blowing in short blasts, panting as one out of breath, emitting puffs of steam, etc.
1398Trevisa Barth. De P.R. x. v. (Tollem. MS.), A lytel puffynge of wynde quykeþ and tendeþ leye. 1548Patten Exped. Scot. B ij b, So stepe be these bankes on eyther syde and depe.., that who goeth straight doune shalbe in daunger of tumbling, & the commer vp so sure of puffyng & payne. 1581Mulcaster Positions xx. (1887) 84 To eager walking..encreaseth puffing and blowing. 1714Spect. No. 558 ⁋4 Another, after a great deal of puffing, threw down his Luggage. 1849F. B. Head Stokers & Pokers iii. (1851) 41 The loud puffing of an engine announces the approach..of empty carriages.
b. The sudden discharge of a cloud of spores by a fungus.
1887H. E. F. Garnsey tr. A. de Bary's Compar. Morphol. & Biol. Fungi iii. 89 Many of the Discomycetes have the peculiar habit of ‘puffing’.., of suddenly discharging a whole cloud of spores. 1953C. T. Ingold Dispersal in Fungi ii. 27 If a cup-fungus is picked and at once placed near the ear, puffing may occur and is then audible as a hissing sound. 1976G. C. Ainsworth Introd. Hist. Mycol. vii. 196 Micheli..was also the first to record and illustrate the visible ‘puffing’ of spores from the ascocarps of discomycetes.
†2. concr. ? A powder-puff. Obs. rare.
1654Gayton Pleas. Notes iii. vii. 112 [He] never went without a small Box of Powder, or dried Meale and his Puffings.
3. a. The action of distending something by blowing; blowing up, inflation. Also fig.
1495Trevisa's Barth. De P.R. v. xlii. (W. de W.) k v/2 Puffynge and wyndynge of the guttes. 1530Palsgr. 259/1 Puffyng up, inflation. 1593[see b]. 1607Topsell Four-f. Beasts (1658) 431 A Musk-cat..doth loosen and dissolve all thick puffings or windiness in the interior parts. 1688R. Holme Armoury iii. 269/1 Thresh not Wheat but as you Eat it, for fear of Pufting and Fustiness.
b. The action of distending anything by stuffing or padding, or by gathering in; esp. in costume, the making of puffs (puff n. 2 b); also concr. a puffed formation.
1593Nashe Christ's T. (1613) 146 It is not..your floury iaggings, superfluous enterlacings, and puffings vp, that can any way offend God, but the puffing vp of your soules. a1618Sylvester Hymn of Alms 206 The puffing of his Periwig. 1824Miss Mitford Village Ser. i. 225 (Mrs. Mosse) A satin riband fastened in a peculiar bow, something between a bow and a puffing behind. 1896A. H. Beavan Marlbor. Ho. ix. 162 A black sunshade, edged with a puffing of white chiffon.
c. Cytology. The occurrence or formation of puffs on a chromosome. Also attrib. Cf. puff n. 2 d; puffed ppl. a. 1 d.
1938Genetics XXIII. 159 Intermediate degrees of ‘puffing’ show the bands or discs in various stages of disruption. 1954Exper. Cell Res. VI. 199 The ‘lamp-brushes’ show a considerable degree of lateral ‘puffing’ as judged from the fact that the immediately neighbouring branches of the chromosome are only half as thick. 1968H. Harris Nucleus & Cytoplasm iv. 78 It has been contended that the pattern of puffing shows organ specificity, but the evidence for this does not seem to be at all conclusive. 1970Cold Spring Harbor Symp. Quantitative Biol. XXXV. 534/1 Periods of greatest puffing activity are seen as the animals molt from one instar to the next and both events, molting and the initiation of a specific sequence of puffing, are primarily controlled by the same hormone,..ecdysone.
4. fig.
a. The action of praising or extolling in inflated language for a purpose, esp. by way of advertisement; interested laudation or commendation.
1754A. Murphy Gray's-Inn Jrnl. No. 91 The above is not in the ordinary Way of puffing, but to promote the real Benefit of the Community. 1870Emerson Soc. & Solit., Success Wks. (Bohn) III. 119 In this life of show, puffing, advertisement, and manufacture of public opinion.
b. Bidding at an auction for the purpose of inflating or raising the price.
1858Ld. St. Leonards Handy-Bk. Prop. Law iv. 22 You may..appoint a person to bid for you at the sale, in order to prevent the estate from being sold at an undervalue. This is generally termed puffing.
attrib.1901Times 16 Nov. 14 By the Puffing Act, 1867, it is provided [etc.].
5. attrib. puffing-hole (see quot.); puffing tube, a blow-pipe.
1862J. B. Jukes Student's Man. Geol. (ed. 2) ii. x. 220 The sea sometimes gradually forms a passage for itself in the surface above, and if that be not too lofty, forms a ‘blow-hole’ or ‘puffing-hole’, through which spouts of foam and spray are occasionally ejected high into the air. 1883Day Indian Fish 68 (Fish. Exhib. Publ.) Malabar puffing tube, with darts used for killing fish.
▪ II. ˈpuffing, ppl. a.
[f. as prec. + -ing2.]
That puffs: see the verb.
1. Blowing in puffs; panting violently; sending forth puffs of steam, etc. puffing-pig, a name for a small species of porpoise (U.S.).
a1618Sylvester Panaretus 707 If the puffing gales Into the Deep transport her huffing sails. 1620Swetnam Arraign'd (1880) 9 From whence comm'st thou in such a puffing heate? 1668Charleton Onomast. 167 Balæna Physeter..the puffing, or spouting Whale. 1697Dryden Virg. Georg. iv. 248 One brawny Smith the puffing Bellows plyes. 1845J. Coulter Adv. in Pacific iii. 28 Shoals of a small kind of porpoise, commonly called puffing pigs.
b. Puffing Billy, an affectionate name for a steam locomotive or train; also transf. and attrib.
The original ‘Puffing Billy’ was built by William Hedley in 1813.
1934Joyce Let. 25 Apr. (1966) III. 304, I prefer Puffing Billy to Swaggering Bob. 1963A. Lubbock Austral. Roundabout 172 A ‘Puffing Billy’ engine, wood-fired, was dredging the silt. 1977Times 19 Apr. 5/5 (caption) A replica of an early American ‘Puffing Billy’..at the National Railway Museum, York.
2. Uttering scornful ejaculations; haughty in demeanour; swaggering. Obs. or arch.
1583Greene Mamillia Wks. (Grosart) II. 97 A cooling carde of misfortune to pluck down y⊇ puffing peate of prosperitie. 1687T. Brown Saints in Uproar Wks. 1730 I. 80 Thou huffing, puffing, sconce-building ruffian.
3. Becoming inflated or swollen; swelling up.
1661Boyle Phys.-Chem. Ess. Salt-Petre §8 Unless it chance, that the puffing matter do blow the coal too soon out of the crucible. 1856Kane Arct. Expl. I. xx. 259 The willows are sappy and puffing.
†4. fig. Bombastic, ‘swelling’. Obs.
1567Drant Horace, Art Poetry B vij, He that doth belch out puffinge rymes. a1592Greene Vision Wks. (Grosart) XII. 203 The puffing glorie of the loftie still shadowing wanton conceipts.
†5. That puffs up; inspiring pride or arrogance; elating. Obs.
1598E. Guilpin Skial. iv, Thee whom [Philosophy] hath taught to moderate Thy mounting thought, nor to be eleuate With puffingst fortunes. 1652Benlowes Theoph. xiii. vii, No puffing hopes, no shrinking fears them fright.
6. That praises extravagantly; putting forth ‘puffs’ or inflated commendations.
1768Goldsm. Good-n. Man Epil., As puffing quacks some caitiff wretch procure, To swear the pill, or drop, has wrought a cure. 1805Sporting Mag. XXV. 187 Without the quackery of puffing advertisements.
Hence ˈpuffingly adv., with puffing.
1598Florio, Tremidamente, swellingly, puffingly. 1611Cotgr., Boufément, puffingly. 1760–72H. Brooke Fool of Qual. (1809) IV. 157 Dobson and his dame coming diffidently but puffingly up the avenue. 1905Blackw. Mag. Jan. 98/2 A fat Turkish apothecary puffingly struggles up our ship's side. |