| 释义 |
shifty, a.|ˈʃɪftɪ|
[f. shift n. + -y.]
1. a. Full of shifts or expedients; well able to shift for oneself.
1570Levins Manip. 111/21 Shifty, astutus, prouidus. 1783Maryland Jrnl. 18 Feb. 3/3 Ran away,..a Negro Man, named Pompey,..very artful and shifty. 1838‘Texan’ Mexico v. Texas 217 Flambeau, who was extremely shifty, soon built up a nice little booth. 1854Emerson Lett. & Soc. Aims, Resources Wks. (Bohn) III. 197 What a plastic little creature he [man] is! so shifty, so adaptive! 1859Kingsley Water-supply Lond. Misc. II. 218 The canny, shifty, far-seeing Scot, with that mingled daring and caution of his. 1888Black In Far Lochaber xxiii, She was in many ways a shifty and business-like young person, who had early acquired a sense of responsibility.
†b. Of a device: Effective, serviceable. Obs.
1585Greene Planetom. Wks. (Grosart) V. 119 Seeing his troubled minde coulde finde out no shiftie deuise.
2. a. Fond of indirect or dishonest methods; addicted to evasion or artifice; not straightforward, not to be depended on.
1837Carlyle Fr. Rev. I. iv. iv, A Stanislas Maillard,..one of the shiftiest of men. 1841Kinnear Cairo, etc. 305 A most shifty old fox he [sc. Mehemet Ali] is. 1879Farrar St. Paul (1883) 554 Their Jewish teachers said that Paul was shifty and complaisant.
b. Of a person's attributes, actions, etc. Also Comb., as shifty-eyed adj.
1864Thackeray D. Duval ii. (1869) 10 A handsome, tall, sallow-faced man, with a shifty eye. 1865Dickens Mut. Fr. ii. vi, I scorn your shifty evasions. 1884American VII. 213 His political methods have been shifty and not straightforward. 1922H. Jenkins John Dene of Toronto i. 11 A shifty-eyed little man. 1977M. Babson Lord Mayor of Death xiv. 92 He must have looked a right shifty-eyed bastard.
3. Changeable or changeful; wavering. rare.
1882H. S. Holland Logic & Life (1885) 294 Principles grow vague, and shifty, and indecisive. 1884Manch. Guard. 22 Sept. 5/4 People of fashion and taste..are so shifty that they do not know their own minds from day to day. 1904R. Bridges Demeter 630 Until his shifty mind Became to pity inclined.
4. Changing or shifting in position.
1884A. Brassey in Good Words Mar. 165/1 The wind was shifty, though light and fair. 1891Meredith One of our Conq. xxviii, A South-easterly wind blew the waters to shifty gold-leaf prints of brilliance under the sun. 1907J. G. Millais Newfoundland xii. 244 The wind had dropped, and showed signs of being shifty. 1976Yachts & Yachting 20 Aug. 377/1 Weatherwise the 116-strong fleet had mostly light and shifty winds. |