| 释义 |
scissors, n. pl.|ˈsɪzəz|
Forms: α. 4–5 sissoures, sisours, 5 sesours, syssoris, sysors, -our(e)s, -owrys, sing. -owre, 6 sycers, sysers, syzers, sis(z)ers, 6–8 sissars, siz(z)ers, 7 sizars, sizzors, sissers, sissors, sing. sizar. β. 5 cysors, sing. cysowre, 5–6 cysars, 6 cysers, -ours, cyzers, cycers, cyssers, cisars, sing. cizar, 6–7 ciz(z)ers, 7 cizars, cissours, cis(s)ers, cissars. γ. 6 scissoures, 7 scisers, scizars, scizzers, 7–8 scissers, scizzars, 7–9 scizzors, scissars, 7– dial. scithers (see also E.D.D.), 8 scizers, 7– scissors.
[ME. sisours, cysowres, a. OF. cisoires (mod.F. only in the sense ‘large shears’; the sense ‘scissors’ is expressed by the cognate ciseaux, pl. of OF. cisel, mod.F. ciseau: see chisel n.) = It. cesoje (rare; the usual word is forbici), a fem. pl. ad. late L. *cīsōria (neut.) pl. of cīsōrium cutting instrument (Vegetius, 4–5th c.), f. -cīs-, -cīdĕre, the form assumed in prepositional compounds by cæs-, cædĕre to fell, strike, beat, slay, cut. The last sense, rare in the simple vb., is prominent in most of the compounds (as abscīdĕre, concīdĕre, incīdere, excīdĕre); hence the late L. use of cīs- instead of cæs- in derivatives related to this sense.
The spelling with sc, first found in the 16th c., appears to be due to etymologizing confusion with L. scissor, agent-n. f. scindĕre to cut, split, rend. (Cf. also scythe.) There appears to be no evidence of this confusion at an earlier date, though in Eng. mediæval documents scissor (written also cissor, cisor) was the usual Latin word for a tailor.]
1. A cutting instrument consisting of a pair of handled blades, so pivoted that the instrument can be opened to a shape resembling that of the letter X, and the handles then brought together again so as to cause the edges of the blades to close on the object to be cut.
The larger instruments of this kind, especially those which are too large to be manipulated with one hand, are called shears. Tailors call the large size shears, the medium size trimmers, and the small size scissors or cuts. In Sc. dialects all sizes of the article are called shears, the word scissors not being in use.
a. in pl. form with plural construction, either in singular or plural sense. When qualification by a numeral or an indefinite article is required, pair of scissors is used.
αc1384Chaucer H. Fame 690 (Fairf.) And moo berdys in two oures Withoute Rasour or Sisoures Y-made then greyndes be of sondes. c1400Beryn 2916 Getith a peir sisours, sherith my berd a-noon. Ibid. 2917 Som went to with sesours. c1450Bk. Curtasye 830 in Babees Bk., Þe snof of hom dose a-way With close sesours, as I ȝow say; Þe sesours ben schort and rownde y-close, With plate of irne vp-on bose. 1483Act 1 Rich. III, c. 12 §2 No Merchant Stranger..shall bring into this Realm..Tailors Shears, Sysors. 1530Palsgr. 251/1 Payre of sycers, ciseletz, forces. c1580Tusser Husb. (1878) 36 A buttrice and pincers, a hammer and naile, an aperne and siszers for head and for taile. 1592Greene Quip Upst. Courtier D 3 b, Then begins he to take his sissars in his hand and his combe. 1617Moryson Itin. ii. 45 The haire on his chin..he used almost daily to cut it with his sizers. 1650–63Cowley Cutter Coleman Street i. vi, He..had neither mony enough to hire a Barber, nor buy Sizars. 1682Shadwell Lanc. Witches ii. 22 Out upon that filthy visage, My maid with her Sizars in two minutes shall Cut me a Better in brown paper. 1706Vanbrugh Mistake iv. 45 And there's thy pretty Pocket-Sissars thou hast honour'd me with. 1719De Foe Crusoe i. (Globe) 57, I found..one Pair of large Sizzers.
β1483Cath. Angl. 65/1 A Pare of cysors. 1487Ann. Barber-Surg. Lond. (1890) 530 My plaster box..and the cysars therein. 1590Shakes. Com. Err. v. i. 175 His man with Cizers nickes him like a foole. 1599Hakluyt Voy. II. ii. 87 A paire of sharpe cyzers. 1600J. Pory tr. Leo's Africa viii. 304 They..shaue off their haires to the very bones without any cizzers or rasors. 1673E. Browne Trav. Germ., etc. (1677) 161 Cut in pieces with large Cissars. 1686Plot Staffordsh. 391 In the management of her Cisers. a1697Aubrey Brief Lives (1898) II. 21 He would bring a paire of cizers in his muffe.
γ1568Gonsalvio's Sp. Inquis. Pref. *B iij b, This gentle⁓man..toke a paire of scissoures, and pared his maker where he was ouergrowne. 1612Woodall Surg. Mate Wks. (1653) 17 Two pair of good Scissers for to cut hair. 1664Wood Life (O.H.S.) II. 8 For grinding my scithers, 2d. 1673Ray Journ. Low C. 460 They take the fairest bunches, and with a pair of scissers snip off all the faulty grapes. 1785J. Collier Mus. Trav. (ed. 4) 104 Clipping my beard with a pair of scissars. 1815Elphinstone Acc. Caubul (1842) I. 103 Their beards..are never touched by scissors. 1832G. R. Porter Porcelain & Gl. iv. 172 Any superabundance of material is cut away by the scissors while the glass is red⁓hot. 1856Orr's Circ. Sci., Mech. Philos. 99 Scissors and carpenters' pincers are examples of double levers of the first kind. 1886H. C. Dent Yr. Brazil 409 My men advocated..cutting them [sc. ticks] in two with scissors.
†b. in sing. form, = pair of scissors. Obs.
c1440Promp. Parv. 78/2 Cysowre, forpex. Ibid. 456/2 Sysowre, schere, forpex. 1611Cotgr., Ciselet, a little sizar, or chisell. Ibid., Forcette, a cizar, a small paire of sheeres.
¶c. in pl. form construed as sing. rare.
1843Graves Syst. Clin. Med. xxix. 390, I removed the callous edges with a scissors. 1847E. Brontë Wuthering Heights ix, Now don't you think the lad would be handsomer cropped?..get me a scissors. 1849Miss Warner Wide Wide World iv, What a lovely scissors! did you choose it, mamma, or did it belong to the box? 1906Westm. Gaz. 21 Mar. 12/1 Which is easily removed with a scissors. 1976National Observer (U.S.) 29 May 11/1 Each without the other is only half a scissors.
d. transf. and fig. (Cf. shears, which is more common in dignified metaphor.)
1655tr. Com. Hist. Francion iii. 75 This good Servant..somewhat courtailed our Commons, and for this reason we gave him the nick-name of being Hortensius his Sissors. 1742Young Nt. Th. v. 698 Aid me, to keep pace With destiny; and ere her scissars cut My thread of life, to break this tougher thread Of moral death, that ties me to the world. 1770tr. Mme. Du Bocage's Lett. II. 211 The scissars of time cut their [Alps'] summits into a thousand strange forms. 1843Carlyle Past & Pr. ii. xvi. 169 And Jocelin's Boswellean Narrative suddenly shorn through by the scissors of Destiny, ends. 1883Sat. Rev. 13 Oct. 464/2 A Life of Gargantua on which he has plied the not unnecessary scissors.
e. scissors and paste († paste and scissors): proverbially referred to as the instruments used by the newspaper sub-editor or the mere mechanical compiler. Also transf. and attrib.
1809Monthly Pantheon Apr. 266 He was to..take the scissors and paste brush in hand. 1817Scott Let. 16 June in Lockhart (1837) IV. 65 The incidents selected should have some reference to amusement as well as information, and may be occasionally abridged in the narration; but, after all, paste and scissors form your principal materials. 1826F. Reynolds Life & T. II. 408, I hastily commenced an alteration, and as hastily concluded it, aided with those two effective co-operators, paste and scissors. 1867Chamb. Jrnl. 14 Dec. 785/1 (title of article) Scissors and Paste. 1925T. E. Lawrence Let. 21 Apr. (1938) 475, I haven't much desire to undertake so difficult a scissors and paste job. 1936[see collage]. 1946R. G. Collingwood Idea of Hist. 257 History constructed by excerpting and combining the testimonies of different authorities I call scissors-and-paste history. 1951[see cradle n. 2]. 1977A. Giddens Stud. in Social & Polit. Theory ii. 97 ‘Scissors and paste’ ethnology of the sort which..assembled together examples from numerous different societies without regard to the social context in which they were embedded.
2. a. Wrestling. A grip with the legs or ankles (formerly, the wrists) crossed like a pair of scissors. Also attrib. and body scissors.
1904Skinner Jiu-Jitsu 117 Hasami Shime, or Scissors Grip. 1909Daily Chron. 10 Feb. 8/1 At the second meeting Crozier quickly fixed his favourite scissors hold. Ibid. 8/2 In the second bout Crozier, after a few minutes, again put the scissors on, and this time pinned his man down after using the double nelson. 1909Webster, Scissors, a hold in which one contestant clasps the other's head or body with his legs. 1921Daily Colonist (Victoria, B.C.) 13 Oct. 10/7 He [sc. a wrestler] took the..second [fall]..with a body scissors. 1940R. Chandler Farewell, my Lovely 173 The Indian threw me sideways and got a body scissors on me as I fell. 1961J. S. Salak Dict. Amer. Sports 381 Scissors hold (wrestling), a hold which is secured by locking the legs at the ankles around a part of the opponent's body, pressure being applied. It formerly meant a grip with the wrists crossed like a pair of scissors.
b. High-jumping. (See quots. 1961, 1976.) Also attrib. as scissors jump.
1897Encycl. Sport I. 50/2 The methods of jumping are various, but two main types predominate—viz., the straight jump, and the side-way or scissors jump. 1959Times 1 Oct. 3/3 Her legs..flashed over the bar in the old-fashioned scissors style. 1961F. C. Avis Sportsman's Gloss. 61/2 Scissors jump, in high jumping, that method in which the body is in a virtually upright sitting position, and the legs move in an up-and-down motion. 1964M. Watman Encycl. Athletics 79/2 There are four basic styles of high jumping: scissors, eastern cut-off, western roll and straddle... The ordinary scissors, which is taught to most schoolchildren, is the least effective of the four styles. 1976Webster's Sports Dict. 371/1 Scissors,..a method of high jumping in which the jumper leads with the leg nearest the bar, crosses the bar in a sitting position, and then brings the trailing leg up over the bar as the lead leg is brought down on the other side.
c. Swimming. A movement in which the legs, held rigid, are parted slowly and brought together forcefully. Usu. attrib.
1904R. Thomas Swimming 418/1 The simile of the scissors clip is accurate..for the breast stroke (and would be also for the English sidestroke). 1973Funk & Wagnalls New Encycl. XXII. 367/1 Sidestroke. This stroke, employed on either the right or left side with a scissors kick,..is of particular value for lifesaving technique, but is not used in competition. 1974‘G. Black’ Golden Cockatrice xii. 200, I saw their legs..the girl doing a scissors kick that seemed to weaken as I swam towards them.
d. Rugby Football. (See quot. c 1915.) Also attrib. and transf.
c1915R. A. Lloyd in E. B. Poulton Life R. Poulton (1919) 218 The ‘Scissors’ trick was this: when I had the ball, and Ronald was running beside me just as if he was going to take an ordinary pass, he would suddenly change his direction and come racing straight across at me and practically take the ball out of my hands, and breaking clean through would run right across to the opposite wing. 1927Wakefield & Marshall Rugger 229 The two [sc. a centre and wing three-quarter] may also combine when the centre still has the ball, when.. they exploit the scissors movement. Ibid. 230 This scissors, and dummy scissors, attack may be tried also by two centres or by a centre and stand-off half. 1960V. Jenkins Lions down Under 106 One forty yards' run of his, after he and Malcolm Thomas had worked a perfect dummy scissors, was a gem. 1976Wymondham & Attleborough Express 3 Dec., They worked one of their excellent set pieces including two dummies, a well taken scissors and a Gary Owen.
e. fig. A progressive divergence between two kinds of price or income, so called from the appearance of a graph of the two indices plotted against each other; orig. and spec. used attrib. of a crisis in the Soviet Union in 1923 (see quots. 1926, 1965).
1924M. Farbman After Lenin vii. 125 The economic crisis of the autumn and winter of 1923–24 is known as the crisis of the scissors. 1926Encycl. Brit. III. 425/1 The first of these was a crisis which from an image used by Trotsky came to be known as the crisis of the ‘scissors’. The two blades of the scissors represented the prices of agricultural products and the price of manufactured goods. 1965A. Nove in B. Pearce tr. Preobrazhensky's New Economics p. xi, In 1923 the Soviet economy faced the so-called ‘scissors crisis’: the terms of trade between town and country had become so unfavourable to the latter that the peasants were reluctant to sell their produce. 1974J. White tr. Poulantzas's Fascism & Dictatorship iv. ii. 193 The index of labour income shows that the scissors between the income of skilled and semi-skilled workers widened considerably. 1979China Now Mar./Apr. 25/1 The closing of the price scissors (the gap between the price paid for agricultural foods and the prices paid by the peasants for manufactured goods) has not gone far enough.
f. In phr. scissors and stones, scissors cut paper, scissors game, a game for two players using three postures of the right hand (see quot. 1934).
Or the left hand if one is left-handed.
1934P. Fleming One's Company ii. ii. 198 From a room downstairs came that sound which so often accompanies meals in China—the staccato, competitive ejaculations of a party playing the ‘scissors’ game. In this you and your opponent shoot out your right hands at each other simultaneously, the fingers being arranged in one of three postures. A clenched fist means ‘stone’; two fingers extended mean ‘scissors’; all five fingers extended mean ‘paper’. Scissors cut paper but are broken on stone, and paper wins against stone because stone can be wrapped up in paper. 1952J. B. Pick Phoenix Dict. Games 291 Scissors and stones. 1964I. Fleming You only live Twice i. 18 It was the old game of Scissors cut Paper, Paper wraps Stone. Stone blunts Scissors, that is played by children all over the world. 1976Times 2 Dec. 16/5 The Chinese hand-game Scissors Cut Paper.
3. A mechanical contrivance for gripping a block of stone.
1892Stevenson Across the Plains 198 That two men should handle a stone so heavy, even swinging in the scissors.
4. slang. An exclamation of disgust or impatience.
1843Selby Ant. & Cl. (Farmer), Oh, scissors; insinuate that it takes nine of us to make a man! 1893E. J. Milliken 'Arry Ballads 33/1 Oh, scissors! jest didn't we give 'em tantivy.
5. attrib. and Comb. (chiefly in form scissor-), as scissor-blade, scissor-case, scissor-leg, scissor-maker, scissor-smith; scissor-cut, scissor-legged, scissor-like, scissors-tailed, scissor-winged adjs.; scissor(s-fashion, scissor-wise advs.; scissor(s)-beak, -bill, (a) a skimmer or shearwater, esp. Rhynchops nigra; (b) slang in various senses; esp. a foolish, incompetent, garrulous, or objectionable person; scissor bird = scissor-tail; scissor-cut [tr. G. scherenschnitt], a silhouette that has been cut freehand with scissors; also as v.; scissor(s)-grinder, (a) a man who grinds scissors; (b) a dial. name for the nightjar, Caprimulgus europæus; scissor-hold = scissors 2 a; scissor(s)-lift, a surface that is raised or lowered by the closing or opening of crossed supports pivoted like the two halves of a pair of scissors; scissor-man, a man who wields scissors, spec. a censor, a surgeon, or a tailor; scissor-tail, either of two American birds of the family Tyrannidæ, Milvulus forficatus and M. tyrannus; scissor-tooth, the sectorial or carnassial tooth of a carnivore.
1839Darwin Voy. Nat. vii. (1845) 137, I here saw a very extraordinary bird, called the *Scissor-beak (Rhynchops nigra).
1839Beale Sperm Whale 212 The large grey pelican, the *scissors-bill and diver. 1869–73T. R. Jones Cassell's Bk. Birds IV. 185 The Scissor-bills (Rhynchopes) constitute a group of night birds. Ibid., The Indian Scissor⁓bill (Rhynchops orientalis). 1871Atlantic Monthly Nov. 566/2 Pootiest band of hogs in Tulare County! There's littler of the real sissor-bill nor Mexican racer stock than any band I have ever seen in the State. 1913Industrial Worker (Spokane, Washington) 1 May 5/3 Scissorbill is a localized slang term. Here it refers to the ‘home-guard’ worker, who is filled with bourgeoise [sic] ideas and ethics. It ordinarily describes a worker who has some source of income other than his wages. 1926J. Black You can't Win x. 129 When a bums' ‘convention’ is to be held, the jungle is first cleared of all outsiders such as ‘gay cats’,..‘jungle buzzards’, and ‘scissors bills’. 1931B. Starke Touch & Go xvi. 259 Dick praised me for not saying anything. ‘You're not a scissor-bill.’ A scissor-bill was a woman who gossiped and nagged and was bad generally. 1931‘D. Stiff’ Milk & Honey Route xiv. 163 The line in waiting [for prostitutes] is usually monopolised by the village scissorbills. a1944J. Conroy in B. A. Botkin Treas. Amer. Folklore (1944) iv. 548 Some sign painters couldn't dot the letter ‘i’ without a pounce to go by. It was enough to make a dog laugh to see some poor scissorsbills wrastling around with a pounce. 1961R. P. Hobson Rancher takes Wife iii. 56 The hell you did, you big scissorbill, you stepped on my bum leg and my hand both.
1869–73T. R. Jones Cassell's Bk. Birds II. 161 The *Scissor Bird of the Brazilians (Milvulus tyrannus),..is occasionally met with in the United States.
1879St. George's Hosp. Rep. 514 After closure of the *scissor-blades.
1706Lond. Gaz. No. 4234/5 Two *Scisser Cases.., both of Silver.
1931Times Lit. Suppl. 25 June (Suppl.) p. iii/2 His many brilliant students have perhaps done more service to the book-jacket than to the page by some of their shadow, *scissor-cut and engraved letter forms. Ibid. p. iv/2 Professor D. P. Sterenberg portrays objects of daily life in flat lithographs that resemble scissor-cuts. 1931V. Woolf Waves 126, I see..Neville, scissor-cutting, exact. 1960Times 11 Feb. 3/4 The graceful and elegant animated scissor-cuts of Lotte Reiniger. 1976Times 26 Nov. 4/7 An octagonal scissor-cut emerald is set in a gold and enamel ring.
1895Outing (U.S.) XXVI. 68/2, I..worked my long legs *scissors-fashion through the water.
1841N. Hawthorne Amer. Notebks. (1932) 88 The squirrel..frequently uttered a sharp, quick, angry noise, like that of a *scissors-grinder's wheel. 1855‘Q. K. P. Doesticks’ Doesticks 155 The loving accents of the scissor-grinder's wheel. 1869Lowell Under the Willows 227 Here The Scissors-grinder, pausing, doffs his hat. 1893in Cozens-Hardy Broad Norfolk 50 The Nightjar [is known as the] ‘Scissor-grinder’.
1974D. Sears Lark in Clear Air iii. 43 She pulled my head down close, jimmied her knees around my leg so that she had a *scissor hold.
1923W. de la Mare Riddle & Other Stories 178 Before him stood a kind of gaping wallet, of cracked American cloth, held yawningly open by its *scissor-legs. 1947― Collected Stories for Children 26 His lank scissor-legs.
1967Flakoll & Alegria tr. M. A. Asturias' Cyclone ii. 22 The *scissor-legged cot.
1961Aeroplane & Astronautics CI. 568/2 The mobile *scissor-lift intermediate-base loading platform developed by Canadair is seen here being demonstrated with a Seaboard World Airways' CL-44. 1970Times (Aviation Suppl.) 4 Sept. p. xiv/8 Ready-prepared meals for the galleys on board the aircraft are..loaded by mobile scissors-lift vehicles direct to the galley hatches. 1980BSI News June 5/3 Most types of scissor lift present trapping hazards to persons employed on or about them.
1868Rep. U.S. Comm. Agric. (1869) 316 It [sc. the instrument] consists of a *scissor-like frame. 1886Günther in Encycl. Brit. XXI. 775/2 They [the piked dog-fish] cut the lines with their scissors-like teeth.
1704Lond. Gaz. No. 4082/4 *Scizer or Knife-maker.
1848tr. Hoffmann's English Struwwelpeter (ed. 4) 16 The door flew open, in he ran, The great, long, red-legged *scissar-man. Oh! children, see! the tailor's come. 1932Auden in Rev. Eng. Stud. (1978) Aug. 301 The hump-backed surgeons And the scissor-man. a1953Dylan Thomas Quite Early One Morning (1954) 22 Struwelpeter—oh! the baby-burning flames and the clacking scissorman! 1968Listener 5 Sept. 292/1 Arts censorship in Britain lives on mainly through the sheer personality of its few remaining scissormen.
1623–4Act 21 Jas. I, c. 31 §6 The Occupacion of a Cutler, *Scissorsmith, Shearsmith or Sicklesmith. 1813Examiner 10 May 294/2 S. Broadhead and E. Gurney, Sheffield, scissor-smiths.
1839Darwin Voy. Nat. vii. (1845) 138 A bird with a forked tail, terminated by two long feathers (Tyrannus savana) and named by the Spaniards *scissor⁓tail, is very common near Buenos Ayres. 1872Coues Key N. Amer. Birds 169 Swallow-tailed Flycatcher. Scissor⁓tail. 1894Newton Dict. Birds iii. 816 Scizzors-tail, Milvulus forficatus, one of the most beautiful of the Tyrannidæ.
1823Latham Gen. Hist. Birds VII. 348 *Scissars-tailed Goatsucker... Inhabits Paraguay. 1811Shaw Gen. Zool. VIII. i. 280 Scissars-tailed humming-bird. Trochilus Furcifer... Native of Paraguay.
1840Cuvier's Anim. Kingd. 151 The carnassier, or *scissor-tooth.
1894Outing (U.S.) XXIV. 53/1 A short..column of *scissor-winged birds.
1873C. W. Thomson Depths of Sea v. 214 A pair of scoops..close upon one another *scissorwise on a hinge.
Add:[2.] g. Angling. The fleshy area on the side of the jaw of a game fish.
1951C. Richards Informative Fishing ix. 159 Some are hooked back in the throat, I will admit, others in the gills, but many can be—and are—hooked as cleanly as in any other form of bait fishing. I have had them caught in the lip and in the scissors. 1987Trout & Salmon Mar. 82/4 But fishing something just subsurface in a twisting, boisterous stream..also results in a trout taking and becoming hooked in the scissors before the angler is conscious of any such interception. |