| 释义 |
buroo slang (chiefly Sc.).|bəˈruː, bruː|
Also brew, broo, b'roo.
[Repr. regional (esp. Sc.) pronunc. of bureau (sense 2).]
The Labour ‘Bureau’ or employment exchange; hence, unemployment benefit, esp. in phr. on the buroo.
1934D. Allan Hunger March i. vi. 76 ‘What are you, signor?’ ‘What indeed? A ‘moocher’? A supporter of the ‘buroo’?’ 1937Partridge Dict. Slang 111/2 Buroo or brew, an employment-exchange. Public Works' coll.: from ca. 1924. 1937in Sc. Nat. Dict. s.v., Weel, weel, this is the b'roo day, nuvver mind the fushin'. Come on for oor b'roo. 1969M. Pugh Last Place Left iv. 22 ‘You'll be on the broo as well.’ She meant that I would soon be unemployed. Nell was..inclined to use dated Scottish slang. 1969N. Nicholson in English XVIII. 19 The Market Square is busy as the men file by To sign on at the ‘Brew’. 1978J. Galway Autobiogr. vii. 78 The ‘buroo’ (a Belfast corruption of ‘Unemployment Bureau’) was all right, because by working and paying for your stamps, you had earned that. 1983Listener 9 June 18/3, I can remember as a child 60 years ago hearing the unemployed..saying they were ‘on the buroo’. This was in Plumstead, London SE 18. |