| 释义 |
sky-farmer
[sky n.1]
†1. Cant. (See quots.) Obs.
1753Disc. J. Poulter (ed. 2) 36 Sky Farmers, are People that go about the Country with a false Pass,..under Pretence of sustaining Loss by Fire, or the Distemper amongst the horned Cattle. 1756Gentl. Mag. XXVI. 566 A set of cheats who..impose on the benevolence and compassion of the charitable; these are called sky-farmers. 1785Grose Dict. Vulgar T., Sky-farmers, cheats who pretend they were farmers in the isle of sky, or some other remote place,..or else called sky farmers, from their farms being in..the clouds.
2. In Ireland, a contemptuous name for a class of tenant-farmers.
1763Museum Rust. I. 8 The sky-farmers (those who hold at rack-rents) are mostly so greedy for gain, that [etc.]. Ibid. 371 Of late years the hard-hearted sky-farmers, that is, the inferior sort,..drive the poor into the mountains. 1780Young Tour Irel. I. 73 The sky farmers,..that is the petty ones, let potatoe ground. 1910P. W. Joyce English in Ireland 326 Sky farmer, a term much used in the South.., is a farmer without land, or with only very little. |