| 释义 |
skimmington|ˈskɪmɪŋtən|
Also skyming-, skimmen-, skimmerton; skimmiting, -ity, etc.
[Possibly from skimming (see quot. 1639 in sense 1) + -ton as in simpleton, with the object of simulating a personal name.]
†1. The man or woman personating the ill-used husband or the offending wife in the procession (see 2) intended to ridicule the one or the other. Also transf., a husband whose wife is unfaithful to him; a shrewish woman. Obs.
1609Butler Fem. Mon. iv. (1623) Ij, Yet when they haue it [sc. their desire], let them use poore Skimmington as best they may, especially in publike, to hide his shame. 1634Heywood & Brome Lanc. Witches H.'s Wks. 1874 IV. 234 Enter..a Skimington, and his wife on a horse. 1639Divers Crabtree Lectures Frontispiece [representing a woman beating her husband with a skimming-ladle], Skimmington, and her Husband. 1813Ellis Brand's Pop. Antiq. II. 110 If they stopped at any other door and swept there too, it was a pretty broad hint that there were more Skimmingtons, i.e. Shrews in the town than one.
2. A ludicrous procession, formerly common in villages and country districts, usually intended to bring ridicule or odium upon a woman or her husband in cases where the one was unfaithful to, or ill-treated, the other. Also attrib. (cf. b).
For varying accounts of the reasons for, and the character of, the procession, see the Eng. Dial. Dict.
1634Heywood & Brome Lanc. Witches H.'s Wks. 1874 IV. 230 Hearke ye, do you heare it? There's a Skimington towards, gentlemen. c1679Oldham Wks. (1854) 125 Like pageants of Lord Mayor, or Skimmington. 1714–5Bagford in Leland's Collect. I. p. lxxvi, I might here mention the old Custom of Skimington, when a Woman beats her Husband. 1753J. Collier Art Torment. Concl. (1811) 221 Where the strength of arm is with the wife, she generally uses it in a manner to excite her neighbours to lampoon her by a Skimmington. 1865St. James' Mag. July 511 The ‘skymington’ is still in use for henpecked husbands and shrewish wives. 1886Hardy Mayor Casterbr. xxxix, The rude music of the skimmington ceased. Ibid. xl, He knew nothing of the skimmington-ride.
b. In phrase to ride (the) skimmington, to hold a procession of this kind.
1697View Penal Laws App., A Table of..Misdemeanors, Offences and Nusances... Riot and Riding Skinnington [sic]. a1712W. King Monarch 1 When the young people ride the Skimmington, There is a general trembling in a town. 1796Grose's Dict. Vulgar T., Riding Skimmington. 1822Scott Nigel xxi, You would do well not to forget whose threshold was swept when they last rode the Skimmington upon such another scolding jade as yourself. 1831Examiner 396/2 One of those scenes called ‘riding skimmerton’, or rustic country justice, took place on Monday evening last at Bitterne.
3. A row, quarrel. rare—1.
1753H. Walpole Lett. (1846) II. 479 The Speaker..was so misrepresented by the Attorney-general, that there was danger of a skimmington between the great wig and the coif. |