| 释义 |
R.A.F
Also (colloq.) raf, raff |ræf|.
[f. initial letters of Royal Air Force, founded in 1918 on the amalgamation of the Royal Flying Corps with the Royal Naval Air Service.]
The British Air Force or (collect.) members of this organization.
1920M. Baring R.F.C., H.Q. xxi. 276 On the 20th of May we started on a long expedition to the R.A.F. Headquarters. 1924G. Bell Let. 2 July (1927) II. xxiv. 701 The most interesting thing which happened during this week was a performance by the R.A.F., a bombing demonstration. 1941W. S. Churchill Into Battle 310 Operating from new Greek bases, the R.A.F. attack Bari and Brindisi, and bomb military objectives in Naples. 1946‘Tackline’ You met such Nice Girls vii. 73 And it is a peculiar thing, but the Raff and the Wavy Navy do not mix at parties, and in fact the only place the Wavy Navy like the Raff to be is in the air. 1950C. MacInnes To Victors the Spoils ii. 227 They're Raf bods, escaped prisoners. 1954‘E. C. R. Lorac’ Shroud of Darkness xvi. 173 I'd fly the plane for you if the Raf'd let me. 1957M. Swan Brit. Guiana iv. 76 He was a big man, in his late twenties, with an R.A.F. moustache, wearing a bush-hat and a bush-shirt whose breast pockets bulged with papers. 1965J. Porter Dover Two v. 60 ‘A decent lad like our Rex..in the Raf.’ ‘R.A.F., Dad... I've told you before not to call it Raf!’ 1974S. Milligan Rommel 186, I never dreamed, one day he, I, and a lone RAF erk called Sellers..would make a sort of comic history. 1980J. Ditton Copley's Hunch i. i. 11 For a Raff bloke, that's good going. You're not trained to make full use of ground cover, are you?
Hence as v. trans. (see quot. 1940) and intr. (rare).
1930T. E. Lawrence Let. 8 Jan. (1938) v. 675, I spend innocent days R.A.F.ing. 1940Daily Mail 28 Aug. 3/1 Yesterday I heard: ‘He'll get R.A.F.'d if he doesn't mind.’ There's surely a rousing neologism in this—to ‘raff’ the Nazis instead of the old ‘strafing Fritz’. Why not say ‘Berlin has been raffed to blazes?’ |