| 释义 |
Sam Slick U.S.|sæm slɪk|
The name of a peddling clock-seller, hero of a series of stories by T. C. Haliburton (1796–1865), Nova Scotian judge and political propagandist, used transf. of a type of smooth-spoken and sharp-practising New Englander, and hence gen. of any resourceful trickster or ‘spiv’. Also attrib.
1897R. G. Haliburton in Haliburton: a Centenary Chaplet 26 Sixty years ago the Southern States were familiar with the sight of Sam Slicks. 1916M. Aiken Canada in Flanders I. 118 A ‘hyphenated’ voice..cried out peevishly next evening: ‘Say, Sam Slick, no dirty tricks tonight.’ 1944B. A. Botkin Treas. Amer. Folklore iii. 358 For Yankee trickiness or slickness the name Sam Slick has become proverbial. 1962Amer. Speech XXXVII. 84 Other items of the standard vocabulary of this ‘Sam Slick’ American were suggested rather than directly quoted. |