| 释义 |
▪ I. quack, n.1|kwæk|
Also 7 quacke.
[Abbrev. of quacksalver.]
1. a. An ignorant pretender to medical or surgical skill; one who boasts to have a knowledge of wonderful remedies; an empiric or impostor in medicine. = charlatan 2.
1659T. Pecke Parnassi Puerp. 145 Sir Quack his Patient told, nothing could cure The stubborn Feaver. 1683Kennett tr. Erasm. on Folly 47 All these hard named fellows cannot make So great a figure as a single Quacke. 1722De Foe Plague (1754) 36 Running after Quacks and Mountebanks..for Medicines and Remedies. 1783Crabbe Village 1, A potent quack, long versed in human ills, Who first insults the victim whom he kills. 1809W. Irving Knickerb. (1861) 127 He who has once been under the hands of a quack, is for ever after prone to dabble in drugs. 1880Beale Slight Ailm. 22 Persons would be easily influenced by what the quack says.
b. slang (orig. Austral. and N.Z.). A doctor (with no implication that he is unqualified); also in Mil. use, a medical officer.
1919W. H. Downing Digger Dial. 40 Quack, a medical officer. c1926‘Mixer’ Transport Workers' Song Bk. 43 And ask me if I want a ‘sub’. For to take me to the ‘quack’. 1943Coast to Coast 1942 29 Might be he lose his leg if we don't get him across right away to the quack. 1945C. H. Ward-Jackson Piece of Cake (ed. 2) 51 Quack, medical officer. 1960J. Iggulden Storms of Summer 169 I'll get the quack at the Bush Hospital to have a look at it in the morning. 1962Granville Dict. Sailors' Slang 93/1 Quack, the, medical officer. Jocular. 1976D. Ireland Glass Canoe 136, I go along to this quack and he says Get back to the surf and get some green vegetables into you.
2. transf. One who professes a knowledge or skill concerning subjects of which he is ignorant. = charlatan 3.
1638Ford Fancies iii. i, There he sits..The very quack [eds. quaik, quake] of fashions. 1710Steele Tatler No. 195 ⁋2 Rules for knowing the Quacks in both Professions [Law and Physic]. 1782Cowper Progr. Err. 474 Church quacks, with passions under no command, Who fill the world with doctrines contraband. 1864Burton Scot Abr. I. v. 249 There is scarcely an instance of a lord rector having been a clamorous quack or a canting fanatic.
3. attrib. and Comb., as quack-advertisement, quack-bill, quack-bookseller, quack-doctor, quack-medicine, etc.; also quack-adoring, quack-ridden adjs.
1653H. More Antid. Ath. iii. ix. §2 (Schol.) Principles that no..pert Saucy Quack-Theologist can any way enervate. 1695tr. Colbatch's New Lt. Chirurg. Put out Title-p., The Base Imposture of his Quack Medicines. a1704T. Brown Table Talk in Coll. Poems (1705) 130 A Chymist..put out a Quack-Bill. 1707Hearne Collect. (O.H.S.) II. 65 Mr. Bolton..now a quack-Physitian in London. 1751Warburton Pope's Wks. IV. 18 The bills of Quack-Doctors and Quack-Booksellers being usually pasted together on the same posts. 1785Europ. Mag. VIII. 469 A dialogue between the doctor and his clerk satirizes quack advertisements. 1839Carlyle Chartism v. 138 Europe lay pining,..quack-ridden, hag-ridden. 1855Browning Bp. Blougram 366 Quack-nonsense about crowns, And..The vague idea of setting things to rights. 1874Helps Soc. Press. ii. 26 A puffing, advertising, quack-adoring world.
▪ II. quack, n.2|kwæk|
[Imitative: cf. Du. kwak, G. quack, Sw. qvack (of ducks or frogs), Icel. kvak twittering of birds. See also quake int.]
The harsh cry characteristic of a duck; a sound resembling, or imitating this. b. humorously. A duck.
1839Lett. fr. Madras (1843) 290 Showing his teeth, and uttering a loud quack! 1869Blackmore Lorna D. x, He gave me a look from his one little eye..and then a loud quack to second it. a1897Bird o' Freedom (Barrère & Leland), I send her herewith a couple of quacks. 1901A. R. Conder Seal Silence 211 The voice of the footman rose high above the general quack of conversation.
▪ III. † quack, n.3 Obs. rare.
In 5 quakke, 6 quacke.
[Imitative: cf. quackle v.1 and LG. quakken to moan, groan.]
A state of hoarseness or croaking in the throat.
c1386Chaucer Reeve's T. 232 He yexeth, and he speketh thurgh the nose As he were on the quakke, or on the pose. 1577Harrison England ii. xxii. (1877) i. 338 The smoke..was reputed a far better medicine to keepe the goodman and his familie from the quacke or pose.
▪ IV. quack, n.4 U.S.|kwæk|
[var. of quick n.2]
Couch-grass, Agropyron repens, a European grass with creeping roots, widely naturalized elsewhere. Cf. quick n.2
1833L. C. Beck Bot. N. & Middle States 416 A troublesome weed. Couch Grass. Quack. 1872Rep. Vermont Board Agric. I. 289 He who sets out to subdue a piece of quack must resolve on no half-way measures. 1909N.Y. Even. Post (semi-weekly ed.) 11 Mar. 5 In conquering the quack he did the one thing that could have enabled him to get a crop from that unfertilized soil. 1930Times Educ. Suppl. 31 May 248/1 It [sc. couchgrass] has a good many names: squitch, scutch, quack..are all in use. 1948H. A. Jacobs We chose Country 189 The big garden across the road, where we fought quack instead of weeds, really established us.
2. Comb. quack-grass = prec. sense.
1822A. Eaton Man. Bot. (ed. 3) 404 Triticum repens, wheat-grass, couch-grass, quack-grass... Very troublesome in fertile soil, and useful in barren sand. 1839J. Buel Farmer's Compan. xiv. 151 One of our neighbours has been enabled completely to eradicate quack-grass in his Indian corn. 1884G. Vasey Agric. Grasses U.S. 108 Quack grass... There has been a good deal of discussion relative to this grass, some pronouncing it one of the vilest of weeds. 1949This Week Mag. 17 Sept. 2/2 The quackgrass and the sassafras is getting the best of him. 1970Daily Progress (Charlottesville, Va.) 24 May 4/2 Burning robs the topsoil of its fertility..and actually increases the growth of quackgrass, weeds, and other unwanted, troublesome, perennial plants.
▪ V. quack, v.1|kwæk|
[f. quack n.1]
1. intr. To play the quack.
a. To pretend to have medical knowledge; to dabble ignorantly in medicine.
b. To talk pretentiously and ignorantly, like a quack. † Also with of.
1628Venner Baths of Bathe (1650) 362 In quacking for Patients he is so kind and free of his service. 1678Butler Hud. iii. i. 330 To quack of universal cures. Ibid. 364 A Virtuoso, able To smatter, quack, and cant, and dabble. 1722De Foe Plague (Rtldg.) 45 Ignorant Fellows; quacking and tampering in Physick. 1756C. Lucas Ess. Waters I. Pref., Enlighten then their understandings..and who then will venture to quack, or be quacked? 1876G. Meredith Beauch. Career III. ii. 29 A wiseacre who went quacking about the country, expecting to upset the order of things.
2. trans. To advertise, puff, or palm off with fraudulent and boastful pretensions, as a quack-medicine or means of cure. † Also with forth. † to quack titles: to invent new titles for old books in order to make them sell.
1651Biggs New Disp. Pref. 9 To be Quacked forth in Bartholmew-Fayr. 1651Cleveland Poems 33 Could I (in Sir Emp'ricks tone) Speak pills in phrase, and quack destruction. 1715S. Centlivre Gotham Elect. i, My third Son is a bookseller..he has an admirable knack at quacking Titles. 1727Bradley Fam. Dict. s.v. Gill ale, A notorious Imposition, which is quack'd upon the World..to be a great Restorative and Curer of Consumptions. 1830Examiner 610/2 The Politician must be quacked, paragraphed,..and coteried into notoriety.
3. To treat after the fashion of a quack; to administer quack medicines to; to seek to remedy or put right by empirical or ignorant treatment. Also with up.
1746H. Walpole Lett. to Mann (1833) II. 124 If he has any skill in quacking madmen, his art may perhaps be of service now. 1757E. Griffith Lett. Henry & Frances (1767) I. 84, I am..as ‘hoarse as bondage’. I shall there⁓fore stay here to-night, and quack myself. 1778Sketches for Tabernacle Frames 17 For quacking Souls you cannot be attack'd. 1810Bentham Packing (1821) 144 Epitaph on a Valetudinarian, who quacked himself to death. 1820P. Hawker Diary (1893) I. 195, I tried with bricks, baskets and everything..to quack up one of them [defective chimneys]. a1876H. Martineau Autobiog. (1877) I. 147 The less its condition is quacked..the better for the mind's health. 1925Scribner's Mag. Oct. 385/1 Time..has not obliterated the love of being quacked.
Hence quacked ppl. a.
a1876H. Martineau Autobiog. (1877) II. 461 Such exhortations are too low for even the..quacked morality of a time of theological suspense.
▪ VI. quack, v.2|kwæk|
Also 8 quaake.
[Imitative: cf. Du. kwakken, G. quacken to croak, quack. Older variants are quackle, quake, queck, q.v.]
1. intr. Of a duck: To utter its characteristic note. Also with cognate obj.
1617Minsheu Ductor, To Quacke as a ducke,..coaxare. a1712W. King (J.), Wild ducks quack where grasshoppers did sing. 1727Bailey vol. II, Quacking [ed. 1731 Quaaking], making a Noise, as ducks do. 1755Johnson, Quack... This word is often written quaake, to represent the sound better. 1815[see quacking vbl. n.2]. 1862G. Kearley Links in Chain ix. (1863) 222 [The duck] no sooner recognized the aviary..than he quacked vehemently. 1869Blackmore Lorna D. x, There were thirteen ducks..and..they all quacked very movingly. 1893Earl Dunmore Pamirs I. 185 They [some ducks]..quacked the quack of derision at us.
b. Of a raven or frog: To croak. rare.
1727Boyer Anglo-Fr. Dict., To Quack (or to croak, as Ravens do), croasser. 1892Tennyson Foresters ii. ii. 97 My frog that used to quack When I vaulted on his back.
2. transf. To make a harsh sound like the note of a duck; to make a noisy outcry.
a1624Bp. M. Smith Serm. (1632) 136 An example to all busie-bodyes, that will dare..to quacke against their betters. 1894Hall Caine Manxman 265 He puffed till his lips quacked, though the pipe gave out no smoke.
▪ VII. quack, quack-belly, -breech, -myre, quacker
see quake v.1, quaker. |