释义 |
‖ sauve-qui-peut|sovkipø| [Fr., subst. use of a phrase = ‘Save (himself) who can’.] (a) n. A general stampede or complete rout. (b) phr. (in the original Fr. sense.) Hence as v., to stampede or scatter in flight.
[1802C. James Milit. Dict., Sauve qui peut! Fr. Let those escape that can. This expression is familiar to the French in moments of defeat, and great disorder.] 1815Scott Let. in Lockhart Life (1837) III. xi. 361 The marshals followed his [Buonaparte's] example; and it was the most complete sauve qui peut that can well be imagined. 1855–6Thackeray Four Georges i. (1861) 41 What a fine satirical picture we might have had of that general sauve qui peut amongst the Tory party! 1875Encycl. Brit. III. 321/2 Sauve qui peut was the universal cry; and..in less than six weeks above seventy banking establishments were swept off. 1907Anthony Hope Tales of Two People 133 The poor Stock fell two points more: there had been a sauve qui peut of the timid holders. 1939tr. E.N. Marais's My Friends the Baboons iii. 35 All the baboons do in such a case is sauve qui peut with an alarm-call that makes the mountains echo. 1964Reading Teacher Dec. 211/1 Working-class whites, themselves anthropologically unsophisticated, join the sauve qui peut in search of a suburban haven. 1973Times 26 Nov. 15/4 It is difficult to understand the Government's present policy, or indeed that of any of the oil users. Sauve qui peut will serve no one well in the long run. 1980Guardian 11 Nov. 10/8 It is in those hallowed halls of the UN..that I feel most keenly the theatre of anarchy; of sauve-qui-peut. |