| 释义 |
spadger dial. or colloq.|ˈspædʒə(r)|
[Fanciful alteration of sparrow.]
1. A sparrow. Also attrib.
1862C. C. Robinson Dial. Leeds 417 ‘Spadger-pie’ is an article of diet occasionally. 1892‘Son of Marshes’ Within Hour of Lond. 59 The sparrow, or ‘spadger’, is a friend to the farmer.
2. transf. A boy. colloq. rare.
1899Captain II. 273/2 If we've got to take these three young spadgers..we shall want something bigger'n this here gig. 1978K. Bonfiglioli All Tea in China i. iii. 29 ‘See here, young spadger,’ he said..‘if you should be a little short of tin..come and spend a night or two at Great Coram Street.’
Hence as v. intr. (rare), (a) to catch sparrows or other small birds, to go sparrow-netting; (b) fig., to play or frolic about in the manner of a sparrow.
1939F. Thompson Lark Rise ix. 171 In winter in the 'eighties the youths and big boys of the hamlet would go out on dark nights ‘spadgering’. For this a large net upon four poles was carried... When they came to a spot where a flock of sparrows or other small birds was roosting, the net was dropped over the hedge..and the birds enclosed were slaughtered. 1967Listener 7 Sept. 315/2 Tommy Steele spadgered larkily about among the zoomorphs. |