| 释义 |
spillikin, spellican|ˈspɪlɪkɪn|, |ˈspɛlɪkən|
Forms: α. 8 spilakee, 9 spilleken, -ekin, -acan, 8– spillikin, 9 -iken, spilikin. β. 9 spel(l)ican, spelekin.
[app. a diminutive of spill n.1]
1. a. pl. A game played with a heap of slips or small rods of wood, bone, or the like, the object being to pull off each by means of a hook without disturbing the rest.
α1734Mrs. Delany Life & Corr. (1861) III. 211 Your busyness done, and you at ease To take your game at spilakees. 1800M. Edgeworth Belinda xix, Belinda was playing with little Charles Percival at spillikins. 1864C. M. Yonge Trial I. 173 In the nursery he was, playing at spillekens with his left hand. 1884Punch 16 Feb. 73/2, I have heard that the Bishops play Spilikins for cups of tea.
β1869F. Montgomery Misunderstood xi. 211 Eagerly waiting for his game of ‘Spelicans’. 1896Beardsley Under the Hill (1904) 17 Spiridion..looked up from his game of Spellicans and trembled.
b. One of the slips with which this is played.
1883Mrs. R. T. Ritchie Bk. Sibyls iv. 220 The spillikens lie in an even ring where she had thrown them. 1890H. S. Hallett Thousand Miles on Elephant 251 Dead bamboos lay like spellicans cast about in every direction.
2. (See quot.)
1858Simmonds Dict. Trade, Spillikins, pegs of wood bone or ivory, for marking the score of cribbage or other games.
3. fig. In pl., Splinters; fragments. Also in sing.
1857Reade White Lies III. ix. 127 The shot..knocked him into spillekins. 1886Illustr. Lond. News 3 July 2/1, I do not want to see the British empire split into spillikins. 1907E. Gosse Father & Son ii. 50 My nerves were a packet of spilikins. 1940W. de la Mare Pleasures & Speculations 71 No fine shades of psychology, or ethical spellicans are here. 1945― Burning-Glass 44 To ponder upon a moth..A spelican from his palm.
4. attrib., as spillikin-heap, spillikin twig, etc.
1860Zoologist XVIII. 7060 Stepping cautiously and delicately over the spillacan twigs, like a Catholic priest in a crowded thoroughfare. 1891V. C. Cotes Two Girls on Barge 119 Not frivolous tea in a Sévres eggshell with a spellican development of spoon. 1900Blackw. Mag. July 57/1 We became involved in a spillikin-heap of cross⁓purposes. |