| 释义 |
▪ I. skulk, n.|skʌlk|
Also 4–5 sculke, 6 scoulke, sculck; 5 skulke.
[f. the vb.]
1. One who skulks or hides himself; a shirker.
c1320Langtoft Chron. (Rolls) II. 248 The roghe raggy sculke Rug ham in helle! 1838Knickerbocker XI. 448 Spotswood had told the middie that Tudor was a great ‘skulk’, and would probably be reluctant to turn out. 1847H. Melville Omoo iv, ‘Where's that skulk, Chips?’ shouted Jermin down the forecastle scuttle. 1894Blackmore Perlycross 107 You are an honest fellow, Jemmy, whatever skulks and sneaks may say.
†2. A number, company, or gathering (of persons or animals given to skulking). Obs.
Chiefly in echoes of a list of ‘proper terms’, and having at no time much real currency.
c1450in Trans. Philol. Soc. (1909) 25 A Skolke of freris. A Skolke of thewys. A Skolke of foxys. 1486Bk. St. Albans f vj b, A Skulke of Theuys [etc.]. 1502Arnolde Chron. (1811) 90 Ony persone or persones..that make ony sculke or be a receyuer or a gederar of euyl company. 1532More Confut. Tindale Wks. 502/1 He shall doe [miracles] in hys catholike church, and suffereth none to be done among all the scoulkes of heretykes. 1582Stanyhurst æneis, etc. (Arb.) 138 An armoure..wheare scaals be ful horriblye clincked Of scrawling serpents, with sculcks of poysoned adders. 1594O. B. Quest. Profit. Concern. 10 Notwithstanding all this, there remained a sculke of such, as neither care nor castigation could amend. [1706Phillips (ed. Kersey), Sculk, (among Hunters) a Company, as A Skulk of Foxes. 1801Strutt Sports & P. i. i. 17. 1820 W. Irving Sketch Bk. (1821) II. 50 We say a flight of doves.., a skulk of foxes. 1883E. Pennell-Elmhirst Cream Leicestersh. 380 A cloud of foxes..(the term, an old book told me years ago, should be a sculk of foxes).]
3. An act of skulking.
1858Wraxall Wild Oats xxv, [He] preferred being locked in till twelve, ‘doing a skulk’, as he elegantly termed it.
▪ II. skulk, v.|skʌlk|
Forms: α. 3 sculkin, 4 sculke, 4– sculk, 7 sculck. β. 4 skulc, 4– skulk, 4, 7 skulke. γ. 3 scolk-, 5 Sc. scowk-, 6 scowlke, scoulk, 7 scouke, skowke.
[app. of Scand. origin: cf. Norw. skulka to lurk, lie watching, Da. skulke, Sw. skolka to shirk, play truant.
There is app. a remarkable lack of evidence for the currency of the word in the 15th and 16th centuries, compared with its frequency in earlier and later use.]
1. intr. To move in a stealthy or sneaking fashion, so as to escape notice. Usually with advs. and preps., as about, away, into, etc. † Also refl.
αa1225Ancr. R. 400 Nis non þet muwe etlutien [v.r. auuey sculkin] þet heo ne mot him luuien. a1300Cursor M. 13741 Ne wist þai neuer quat to sai; Bot ilkan sculked þaim awai. c1340Hampole Pr. Consc. 1788 Alle thyng it brestes in sonder, Als it sculkes by diverse ways. 1642–4J. Vicars God in Mount (1844) 149 Lord Paulet..took his way toward Myneard, and so to sculk over into Wales. 1691Wood Ath. Oxon. II. 24 He was..forced to..creep and sculk into every place for fear of being taken and hanged. 1773Johnson in Boswell (1831) II. 484 It is a poor thing for a fellow to get drunk at night, and sculk to bed. c1825Mrs. Sherwood Houlston Tracts II. No. 32. 6 The three servants sculked by her to get out of the room. 1849Macaulay Hist. Eng. v. I. 525 Plotters and libellers by profession,..who were forced to sculk in disguise through back streets.
βa1300E.E Psalter cxviii. 158, I sagh wemmand and skulked awai. 1390Gower Conf. II. 93 Awey he skulketh as an hare. c1400Sowdone Bab. 2651 Take withe the .iij. hundred knightes..Leste þat lurdeynes come skulkynge oute. 141926 Pol. Poems 69 Þe glosers skulked away, for shame of here sooles. 1677W. Hubbard Narrative (1865) I. 209 The Enemy..killing a Man at Weymouth, another at Hingham, as they lay skulking up and down in Swamps and Holes. c1720Prior True's Epitaph 19 He..Ne'er skulk'd from whence his sovereign led him. 1804Naval Chron. XII. 338 The enemy..skulking out of Toulon for a mile or two, and then..skulking into port again. 1850D. G. Mitchell Reveries Bachelor 245, I went up at night, and skulked around the buildings. 1883S. C. Hall Retrospect II. 382 The peasant, when drunk, skulks to his home from the public-house through by-ways.
b. transf. and fig.
1665Hooke Microgr. liv. 211 Some mischief that makes it [a louse] oftentime sculk into some meaner and lower place, and run behind a mans back. a1694Tillotson Serm. clii. (1748) VIII. 369 As if things..did break forth into being and sculk again into nothing..‘at the beck of his will’. 1800Coleridge Piccolom. i. iii, Beware you do not think That I by lying arts..have skulk'd into his graces. 1865Ruskin Sesame i. §16 There are masked words droning and skulking about us in Europe just now.
2. To hide or conceal oneself, to keep out of sight, to avoid observation, esp. with some sinister motive or in fear of being discovered; to lurk.
αa1300E.E. Psalter cxi. 9 Sinful sal se,..And sal sculke to be awai. c1330R. Brunne Chron. Wace (Rolls) 15887 Al þat ilke day he sculked; Among þe pouere men he hulked. 1484in Litt. Cantuar. (Rolls) III. 311 Sculkynge in wodys be day and lyinge a wayte to robbe the Kynges lyege people. 1615G. Sandys Trav. 217 A Leopard that sculkt in the aforesaid thicket. 1641J. Jackson True Evang. T. i. 15 Man is a yong Lyon,..lurking and sculking to doe mischiefe. 1736Fielding Pasquin v, The fox, Wise beast, who knows the treachery of men, Flies their society, and sculks in woods. 1806H. Siddons Maid, Wife, & W. I. 108, I..must sculk, a dishonourable, an abandoned fugitive. 1894Gladstone Horace iii. xii. 22 Sculking where the woods are thick.
βa1300E.E. Psalter xxxviii. 15 To skulke als irain þou made saule his. c1330R. Brunne Chron. Wace (Rolls) 8287 Hengist byforn had don hem skulke In wodes, in hilles, to crepe in hulke. 1615G. Sandys Trav. 129 Our Ianizaries discharged their harquebuses, lest some should haue skulkt within. 1709W. Dampier Voy. III. ii. 165 She [a boat] seeing us coming that way,..skulked behind a point a while. 1834Marryat P. Simple (1863) 42 They told me that they had seen two sailors skulking behind the piles of timber. 1884Gilmour Mongols 265 Most Mongols would prefer to endure two or three years' imprisonment, to being compelled to skulk for life.
transf.1664H. Power Exp. Philos. ii. 117 The spontaneous Dilatation..of that little remnant of Ayr skulking in the rugosities thereof. c1750Shenstone Ruin'd Abbey 293 The bigot pow'r Amidst her native darkness skulk'd secure. 1838Dickens Nich. Nick. xix, A smile, which seemed to skulk under his face.
γ1530Palsgr. 699/2 A daye tale he scoulketh in corners and a nyghtes he gothe a thevyng. 1533More Debell. Salem Wks. 994/2 Heretikes..wont but to crepe together in corners, and secretly scoulk together in lurkes lanes. 1611Cotgr., Blotir, to squat, skowke, or ly close to the ground. 1659Torriano Eng.-Ital. Dict., To scouke, nascondersi.
b. To hide, to withdraw or shelter oneself, in a cowardly manner. Freq. with behind.
1621G. Sandys Ovid's Met. xiii. 256 Reuoke the foe, thy wounds, and vsuall feare; Behind my target sculk. 1681Dryden Span. Friar iv. ii, Should a common Soldier sculk behind, And thrust his General in the Front of War. 1781Cowper Conversation 375 But counterfeit is blind, and skulks through fear, Where 'tis a shame to be asham'd t'appear. 1840Dickens Barn. Rudge li, They shall not find us skulking and hiding, as if we feared to take our portion of the light of day. 1877W. Black Green Past. xi, I'll fight any one of you—ah! skulk behind the women, do!
transf.1681Dryden Abs. & Achit. 207 He stood at bold Defiance with his Prince;..and sculk'd behind the Laws. 1771Smollett Humph. Cl. (1815) 122 Every rancorous knave..may skulk behind the press of a newsmonger..without running the least hazard of detection or punishment. 1866G. Macdonald Ann. Q. Neighb. xxvii, But my love did not long remain skulking thus behind the hedge of honour.
c. To shirk duty; spec. to malinger.
1781Cowper Table-T. 312 Let magistrates alert perform their parts, Not skulk or put on a prudential mask. 1826Hutchison Pract. Obs. Surg. 191 The sick list having been..delivered in to the captain, with a particular mark against the name of every man either sculking or suspected of sculking. 1843H. Gavin Feigned Diseases 23 Marines.., much more than sailors, are found frequently skulking, owing to the severity of their exercise. 1887Besant The World Went iv, [He] is not one who will skulk, or suffer his crew to skulk.
3. trans.
a. To shun, keep away from, avoid, in a skulking manner.
c1620Z. Boyd Zion's Flowers (1855) 8 I'le skulk the place where God hath sent me to. 1835Tait's Mag. II. 377 What school-boy would dare to skulk a fight? 1847Fraser's Mag. XXXVI. 561 Southey, in his wonted mode, skulks the affair of the Bay of Naples.
b. ‘To produce or bring forward clandestinely or improperly.’
1846Worcester, citing Eclectic Rev. |