| 释义 |
cattish, a.|ˈkætɪʃ|
[f. cat n.1 + -ish1.]
a. Belonging to or resembling a cat; feline.
1598Florio, Gattino, of a cat kinde, cattish. c1630Drummond of Hawthornden Phillis on Death of Sparrow Wks. (1711) 50 Vengeance falling on the cattish race. 1818Lamb Prince Dorus 5 All her cattish gestures plainly spoke. 1877Blackie Wise Men 95 Flaring cattish eyes.
b. Of a sly or spiteful character. (Cf. cat n.1 2.)
1883W. Black Yolande III. vii. 127 The cattish temper of an old woman. 1893E. E. Saltus Madam Sapphira 15 The stealthy air and cattish smile of the mother.
Hence ˈcattishly adv., in a cattish manner or spirit; ˈcattishness, the quality of being ‘cattish’, spitefulness.
1894Meredith Ld. Ormont III. iv. 69 Thither he walked..prepared for cattishness. 1907Daily Chron. 8 July 3/2 Thus..was Mrs. Steel's cattishness brought home to her. 1909Westm. Gaz. 8 June 3/2 Elizabeth, we are afraid, is developing into a little ‘cat’, as her female friends would probably say... That is where the ‘cattishness’ of Elizabeth shows itself. 1913W. Owen Let. 7 Nov. (1967) 207, I drank milk so doggedly, (or cattishly) even with raw egg in it, that strength has returned. 1923M. Arlen These Charming People 180 ‘Society Hostess Robbed.’ It's almost worth it for her, he thought cattishly, to be called a Society Hostess. 1938R. G. Collingwood Princ. Art v. 87 The biographies of cattishness, whose aim is to release the reader from the irksome reverence..for persons who were important in their day. 1967J. Gardner Madrigal iii. 58 The sergeant turned out to be cattishly agile. |