| 释义 |
▪ I. billy1, billie Sc. and north. dial.|ˈbɪlɪ|
[Of unknown derivation. (It has been compared with bully and G. buhle, but to little purpose.)]
1. Fellow; companion, comrade, mate.
c1505Dunbar In secreit place 31 Be nocht our bosteous to ȝour billie. a1750Graeme & Bewick in Scott Minstr. (1812) II. 292 Your son..is but bad, And billie to my son he canna be. 1786Burns Let. J. Tennant, My auld school⁓fellow, preacher Willie, The manly tar, my mason Billie. 1808Cumbrian Ball. xlii. 96 My billy Aye thought her the flow'r o' them aw. 1863Atkinson Provinc. Danby, Billy, a comrade, familiar acquaintance.
2. ‘Fellow,’ in the wider sense (familiar).
a1774Fergusson Hallowfair, Here chapman billies take their stand And show their bonny wallies. 1790Burns Tam O'Shanter, When chapman billies leave the street. 1815Scott Guy M. xxv, ‘There I met wi' Tam o' Todshaw, and a wheen o' the rest o' the billies on the water side.’
3. Brother. (The corresponding feminine is tittie. Both are now considered rude.) Hence billyhood, brotherhood.
1724Ramsay Tea-t. Misc. (1733) I. 22 His minny Meg upo' her back Bare baith him and his billy. a1748Dick O' the Cow ii. (in Scott Minstr.), Johnie Armstrang to Willie did say—‘Billie, a riding we will gae.’ 1818Hogg Brownie II. 31 (Jam.) That's a stretch of billyhood that I was never up to afore.
▪ II. billy2|ˈbɪlɪ|
[f. Billy, familiar perversion of Willie, hypocoristic or pet form of William: cf. Bobby = Robby = Robert.]
1. A term applied to various machines and implements: as,
a. a slubbing or roving machine;
b. a highwayman's club; a bludgeon; also (U.S.), a policeman's truncheon; see also quot. 1848; also billy club. Cf. uses of Betty, Jack, Jemmy, Jenny.
1795Edin. Advert. 6 Jan. 15/1 Five common carding engines..four pickers, four roving billies, twenty-one spinning jeannies. 1848‘Ned Buntline’ Myst. N.Y. iv. 49 The foremost villain..broke down her guard with a short iron crowbar, or ‘billy’ as the burglars term it. 1856Santa Barbara (Calif.) Gaz. 14 Feb. 2/5 He was knocked down by a blow from a ‘billy’. 1865Times 28 Apr., The man struck Mr. Seward on the head with a billy. 1875Ure Dict. Arts III. 1165 The slubbing machine, or billy. 1889Weekly Scotsman 21 Sept. 3/5 He was felled by Marshal Glade's billy, which stunned him. 1903N.Y. Times 11 Sept., Eight men set upon a policeman this morning,..taking his revolver and billy away from him. 1931L. Steffens Autobiogr. I. ii. v. 214, I felt the ache they [sc. policemen] conveyed to rap some head with the handy little billy. 1949Amer. Speech XXIV. 262 By 1859 the billy club was demanding order in American cities. 1967M. Procter Exercise Hoodwink ix. 67 Lying in the other bunk was a shark club or ‘billy’. Ibid., He had not taken his shark billy. 1969Listener 3 July 11/2 He thought it necessary, this pig, this racist, to take his billy club out and crush her skull.
c. = billy-goat.
1849C. J. Pharazyn Jrnl. 17 Dec. (MS.) 137 Hunting goats Robin shot a Billy. 1928Daily Tel. 9 Oct. 4/6 The Ministry of Agriculture, through the agency of its stud goat scheme, has now placed 103 ‘billies’ at the disposal of small⁓holders.
2. Comb. In names of animals, plants, etc., mostly local: as billy-biter, the Blue Titmouse; billy-button, local name of the Bachelor's Button, Field Scabious, Double Daisy, Red Campion, and various other plants; billy roller, the wooden roller of a slubbing ‘billy’ (see quot.); billy-wix, the Tawny Owl. See also the following words.
1843Penny Cycl. XXV. 4/1 Draws back his hand..well pecked by the irritated matron. Hence he calls it ‘Billy Biter.’ 1834Blackw. Mag. XXXV. 297 Down came on his head..the patriotic billy-roller. 1875Ure Dict. Arts III. 1166 This is the billy-roller, so much talked of in the controversies between the operatives and masters in the cotton-factories, as an instrument of cruel punishment to children, though no such machine has been used in cotton-mills for half a century at least.
▪ III. billy3 Austral. and N.Z.|ˈbɪlɪ|
[Origin uncertain: perh. f. Austral. Aboriginal billa river, water (cf. billabong).]
A cylindrical container, usu. of tin or enamel ware, with a close-fitting lid and a wire handle, used for making tea and for cooking over fires in the open, and for carrying food or liquid.
1839J. Heberley Autobiogr. (MS.) 87 [We] boiled the Billy and made some Tea out of tawa bark. 1853J. Rochfort Adv. Surveyor in N.Z. viii. 63 We must needs purchase a ‘billy’ (a tin pot for boiling tea, coffee, meat or anything you may have the luck to get). 1858Jrnl. R. Geogr. Soc. XXVIII. 310 We are..boiling our flesh or fowl in our tea-can (called a billy). 1872Baden Powell New Homes 48 Men travelling about..invariably carry their billy or quart tin pot, wherein to make tea. 1881Cheq. Career 361 To cook dampers..and boil a ‘billy’ are works of art. 1940F. Sargeson Man & Wife (1944) 10 She was letting them have milk at half the town price... And my last job each day was to take a billy up to the back fence. 1943D. Stewart in Coast to Coast 1942 212 The girls began to pluck handfuls of the berries and carry them to the billies the boys were filling. 1950G. Wilson Brave Company xi. 179 The billy is boiled and the tea made.
attrib. Also ˈbillyful.
1865G. Mueller My Dear Bannie (1958) ii. 55 Price had a billy lid for a plate. 1866A. H. Williamson in R. P. Whitworth Martin's Bay Settlement 23/1 Gathered a billyful of mussels..which we had for supper. 1897D. McK. Wright Station Ballads 17 The spuds and meat were nicely done, the billy tea was made. 1934Bulletin (Sydney) 12 Sept. 9/2 ‘Billy tea,’ says a paragraph issued by the Melbourne Centenary Committee, ‘will be served to H.R.H. the Duke of Gloucester in the East Gippsland forest.’ 1950G. Wilson Brave Company xi. 179 First we boil a billyful of water. |