| 释义 |
smidgen orig. and chiefly U.S.|ˈsmɪdʒɪn|
Also smidgeon, smidgin, smitchin, etc.
[Origin unknown, perh. f. smitch n.2 + -en, -in, repr. dial. pronunc. of -ing1: cf. prec.]
A tiny amount, a trace; a very small person or thing.
1845C. M. Kirkland Western Clearings 71 They wouldn't have left a smitchin o' honey. 1878J. H. Beadle Western Wilds 611 Not a smidgeon left—just bodaciously chawed up and spit out. 1886Trans. Amer. Philol. Assoc. XVII. 43 Smidgen, ‘a small bit, a grain’, as ‘a smidgen of meal’, is common in East Tennessee. 1913[see clip n.2 4]. 1930Va. Quarterly Rev. 6 Apr. 249 He can testify perhaps..that he has had a bait, a snack, or a mere smidgen of them. 1952J. Steinbeck East of Eden xxiii. 289 You little, silly, half-pint, smidgin of a wife. 1954R. Millar Waiting for Gillian in Plays of the Year X. 346 There's a smidgin of Gordon's in the whisky decanter. 1960Wodehouse Jeeves in Offing iv. 45 ‘No will of her own?’ ‘Not a smidgeon.’ 1968Globe & Mail (Toronto) 17 Feb. 37 (Advt.), Whether you're nine months or ninety years old, plump or twiggy, tall as a tree or small as a smidgeon. 1971N.Z. Listener 18 Oct. 11/5 It's an unknown quantity often combined with just a smidgen of skill. 1973People's Jrnl. (Inverness & Northern Counties ed.) 15 Dec. 4/5 My family would eat mince pies to a band playing so long as there's at least a smidgeon of rum butter to wipe over the top crust. 1982R. Conquest in Times Lit. Suppl. 17 Dec. 1385/4 Any writer allowing the merest smidgin of Soviet reality into his work was headed straight for Magadan. |