| 释义 |
clambake U.S.|ˈklæmbeɪk|
Also clam bake, clam-bake.
[clam n.2 4.]
1. a. A baking, Indian-fashion, upon hot stones, of a mass of clams (often overlaid with layers of potatoes, Indian corn, fish, etc.); a favourite feature of pic-nic excursions to the sea-shore in U.S.; hence applied to the pic-nic party itself;
1835Vade Mecum (Phila.) 5 Sept. 2/1 A Clam Bake—Our curiousity [sic] has been gratified, as to the nature of the festival understood by this term. 1848–60Bartlett Dict. Amer., Clam-bake. At a grand political mass-meeting in favour of Gen. Harrison on the 4th of July 1840, nearly 10,000 persons assembled in Rhode Island, for whom a clam-bake and chowder were prepared. 1883Pall Mall G. 24 Sept. 12/1 At a recent..festival in Connecticut a gigantic clambake was cooked which was 25 ft. long and 10 ft. wide, and consisted of 2,000 ears of corn, 600 pounds of lobster, 600 pounds of fish, 1,000 chickens, innumerable oysters and clams, two barrels of sweet potatoes and two of the ordinary kind, and the whole topped off with two immense plum puddings and 150 water melons. 1887Ibid. 17 June 5/2 A clam bake is an institution indigenous to this soil. Long before Puritans..found out its savour, the red man..indulged in clam bakes. 1945Auden Coll. Poetry 134 That caged rebuked question Occasionally let out at clambakes or College reunions. 1962Times 6 Apr. 7/1 Dig razor clams for an outdoor clambake.
b. transf. Applied to other gatherings, esp. one that is loud or lively; an enjoyable time; spec. in Jazz, a jam-session.
1937Amer. Speech XII. 46/1 Clambake, same as jam session. 1938Manch. Guardian Weekly 2 Sept. 188/3 Swing musicians..blaze away at a real ‘clambake’ (free-style swing playing). 1945Chicago Daily News 31 Mar. 4/1 The big United Nations clambake at San Francisco will be operated like a hod-carriers' convention. 1946Mezzrow & Wolfe Really the Blues viii. 131 Life was going to be one long clambake. 1952B. Ulanov Hist. Jazz (1958) xvii. 206 The Dixie outfit he called the Clambake Seven—in cheerful adoption of the term used by jazz musicians both in annoyed disparagement of a poor jam session and in warm approbation of a good one.
c. An inadequate or unsuccessful broadcast programme. slang.
1937in Times Dispatch (Richmond, Va.) 12 Dec. §4, 14. 1941 Word Study May 2/2 The possibility that two or three commentators..will talk simultaneously and confuse the radio audience. This is what we mean by a ‘clam bake’. |