| 释义 |
birkie, n. and a. Sc.
(ˈbɜːkɪ, Sc. ˈbɪrkɪ)
Also birky.
[Connexion has been suggested with ON. berkja to bark, boast, which might do for the sense, but the form is uncertain.]
A. n.
1. A familiar or jocular term for a man, often connoting self-assertion, crustiness, or the ‘having a mind of his own’; sometimes slightly depreciatory = ‘strutting fellow,’ but often, like ‘fellow,’ ‘carle,’ ‘chield,’ without definable force.
1724Ramsay Poems (1800) 92 (Jam.) Spoke like ye'rsell, auld birky; never fear. 1795Burns A Man's a Man iii, Ye see yon birkie ca'd ‘a lord,’ Wha struts, an' stares, an' a that. 1816Scott Old Mort. xli, Folks may speak out afore they birkies now. 1836J. Mayne Siller Gun in Chambers Hum. Sc. Poems 126 Auld birkies, innocently slee, Wi' cap and stoup.
2. A game at cards, ‘Beggar-my-neighbour.’
1777Brand Pop. Antiq. (1849) II. 396. 1827 J. Wilson Noct. Ambr. Wks. 1855 I. 302 Catch me at the cards, unless it be a game at Birky, for I'm sick o' Whust itself.
B. adj. Somewhat irrepressible, active, spirited.
1821Ann. Par. Dalmailing 40 (Jam.) Kate, being a nimble and birky thing, was..useful to the lady. 1822Steam-Boat 38 (Jam.) A gay and birky callan, not to be set down by a look or a word. 1830Galt Lawrie T. vi. viii. (1849) 289 A very fashious trade that of school-maistering either hardy lasses or birkey boys. |