| 释义 |
ˈbutter-box
1. a. A box for holding butter.
1756Nugent Gr. Tour I. 44 The common people seldom go upon a journey without a butter-box in their pockets. 1874Contemp. Rev. XXIV. 698 The wits declared that Denmark had sent a hundred thousand herrings, Holland a hundred thousand butter-boxes.
b. transf. A vessel or vehicle resembling a butter-box. Also attrib.
1840Dana Bef. Mast ix, She was the Loriotte,..and was engaged in the hide and tallow trade. She was a lump of a thing, what the sailors call a butter-box. 1851H. Melville Moby Dick I. xvi. 110 You may have seen many a quaint craft in your day,..butter-box galliots, and what not. 1893Clark Russell List, ye Landsmen ix, Why the deuce don't the shipwrights ease off when they come aft, instead of holding on with the square run of the butter-box to the very lap of the taffrail? 1909N.Y. Even. Post 28 Jan. (Th.), What New York youngster ever heard of a butterbox? This is the name applied [in the country] to the spring wagons of farmer and grocer, divested of wheels and set up on runners for the winter season.
2. Contemptuous designation for a Dutchman. Cf. also butter bag, -mouth (butter n.1 5). Obs. exc. in Naut. slang. Also, a Dutch ship.
1600Dekker Gentle Craft Wks. 1873 I. 21 We have not men enow, but wee must entertaine every butterbox. 1624Massinger Renegado ii. v, Some low country butterbox. 1672H. Stubbe Justif. Dutch War 79 The World is coming to a fine pass when these Butter-boxes presume to teach all Europe Civility. 1811Dict. Buckish Slang, Butter Box, a Dutchman, from the great quantity of butter eaten by the people of that country. 1867Smyth Sailor's Word-Bk. 148 Butter-box..A cant term for a Dutchman. 1929F. C. Bowen Sea Slang 21 Butter Box..Dutch ship or seaman.
3. = butter-ball 2. U.S.
1806W. Clark in Lewis & Clark Exped. (1905) IV. 50 The same species of duck..called the butterbox. a1813[see butter-ball 2]. 1874J. W. Long Amer. Wild-fowl Shooting xxix. 281 Local names [of the buffle-headed duck]: butter-box, butter-ball, and little whistler. |