释义 |
▪ I. bobbery, n. slang.|ˈbɒbərɪ| [According to Col. Yule, and others, an Anglo-Indian representation of Hindī Bāp re! O father!, a common exclamation of surprise or grief. Forby has it in 1830 as East Anglian dialect; and it has been plausibly (as to the form) referred to Sp. boberia folly; but the evidence for its origination in India is decisive.] Noise, noisy disturbance, ‘row’.
1816‘Quiz’ Grand Master (Adventures in Hindostan) xi. 48 The muse now blushes to disclose The bobbery that here arose. 1833Marryat P. Simple xxvii, There'll be a bobbery in the pig-sty before long. 1867Smyth Sailor's Word-bk., Bobbery, a disturbance, row, or squabble; a term much used in the East Indies and China. 1879Punch 17 May 227, I might in quiet hold my own, And not go kicking up a bobbery. ▪ II. bobbery, a. Chiefly Anglo-Ind.|ˈbɒbərɪ| Also bobberee. [? f. bobbery n.] Of a pack of hounds: miscellaneous in breed or quality. Also more widely: poor, of indifferent quality, ‘scratch’. See also quot. 1934.
1873‘A. Cheem’ Lays of Ind. 2nd Ser. 86 Other servants bobbery pack, Drinking up what master leave, sir. 1878Life in the Mofussil I. 142 On the mornings when the ‘bobberee’ pack went out. 1894M. Dyan Man's Keeping i, The daily drills and the hunts with the bobbery packs. 1901‘Linesman’ Words by Eyewitness (1902) 234 A mounted officer pushing forward here, another there trying to turn his ‘bobbery’ horse to get back. 1934S.P.E. Tract xli. 20 The word [bobbery] is scarcely used by Anglo-India, except in the phrase ‘bobbery pack’, where bobbery is an adjective, bearing the derived meaning ‘mixed’, ‘mongrel’, i.e. not composed of fox-hounds, &c.; also, occasionally (= fidgety), of a horse or infant. 1968‘J. Welcome’ Hell is where you find It xi. 146 And what the hell do I do..besides breaking my neck in a bobbery second-class steeplechase? |