| 释义 |
▪ I. sporting, vbl. n.|ˈspɔətɪŋ|
[f. sport v.]
1. a. The action of the verb; engagement or participation in sport.
1483Vulgaria 4 Thoos chylder..which are gouen so muche to play & sportyng. 1581A. Hall Iliad ii. 41 His mates..in diuers mirth the shore in sporting fil. 1582T. Watson Centurie of Love xcii, Hebe,..Goddesse of youth, and youthlie sporting. 1638Sir T. Herbert Trav. (ed. 2) 159 The higher roomes are garnisht with variety of landskips, and represents their way of sporting, hawking,..and other fancies. 1662J. Chandler Van Helmont's Oriat. 95 Let us feign by sporting, and grant a heat to be actually under the Earth and Water. 1796Windham Speeches (1812) I. 286 Dogs kept for sporting, were peculiar to the rich, and though he did not mean to arraign sporting, he thought it not the highest sort of amusement. 1827D. Johnson Ind. Field Sports 178 From this time their sporting was conducted on a much more grand and formidable scale. 1838Lytton Alice ii. v, Maltravers..had neither outshone the establishment, nor interfered with the sporting of his fellow-squires.
b. An instance or occasion of this; † a sport.
1490Caxton Eneydos xv. 59 Passynge the tyme in grete playsaunces, festes, playes & sportynges. 1598Marston Pygmal. Sat. xxxv, Could he abstaine mid'st such a wanton sporting From doing that, which is not fit reporting? 1614Gorges Lucan iii. 86 The common sort to sportings bent. 1687Ayres The Swallow Wks. (1906) 322 Dear Bird thy tunes and sportings here, Delight us all the day.
transf.1666Bp. S. Parker Free & Impart. Censure (1667) 76 The Quaintest plays and sportings of wit. Ibid. 79 Metaphors being only the sportings of Fancy.
2.
†a. The action on the part of Nature of producing an abnormal form or variety; an instance or occasion of this. Obs. Cf. sport n.1 6.
1695Woodward Nat. Hist. Earth i. (1723) 40 They are no Shells, but meer Sportings of active Nature. 1696Whiston Th. Earth iii. iv. 201 [To] ascribe the plainest remains of the Animal and Vegetable Kingdom to the sportings of Nature,..as some persons are inclinable to do. 1746Phil. Trans. XLIV. 317 The Lusus Naturæ or sportings of Nature is a general solution too often brought in. 1756C. Lucas Ess. Waters III. 119 The infinite diversity..may be looked upon as so many sportings of nature.
†b. Irregular diffusion or deposition of pollen.
1763Ann. Reg., Nat. Hist. VI. 73 Thus..amongst apple⁓trees, a mixture of fruit hath been observed on the same tree, supposed by the sporting of the farina.
c. The action on the part of plants, etc., of deviating or varying from the parent stock or type by spontaneous mutation; an abnormal form or variation so produced; a sport.
1841Florist's Jrnl. (1846) II. 176 It is doubtful whether any of these sportings will produce a permanent variety. 1842Ibid. III. 84 This is remarkably the case in the natural ‘sporting of varieties’, as it is called. 1865Gosse Land & Sea (1874) 371 That ferns are more liable to what is technically called ‘sporting’, than other plants. 1882Garden 14 Jan. 32/3 The lecturer then alluded to sporting from seed as another method of raising new forms.
3. attrib. and Comb.
a. In older usage, as sporting device, sporting game, sporting matter, sporting place, sporting time, etc.
1480Coventry Leet-bk. 458 Þe people maken þe same seuerall grounde a sportyng place with shotyng & other games. 1565Cooper Thesaurus, Ludicrum certamen, a sportyng game. 1579L. Tomson Calvin's Serm. Tim. 310/1 It is no sporting matter when the Lorde calleth vs to serue him in this office. 1587Golding De Mornay xiv. (1592) 220 So the Soule which is in the Jaile of his souereine Lord God, hath no respit or sporting time to come tell vs what is done there. 1597Shakes. 2 Hen. IV, iv. ii. 105 Like a Schoole broke vp, Each hurryes towards his home, and sporting place.
b. In later and mod. use, as sporting celebrity, sporting party, sporting purpose; freq. in senses ‘formed or undertaken for sport’, ‘concerned with or interested in sport’, as sporting association, sporting column, sporting event, sporting magazine, sporting newspaper, sporting page, sporting paper, sporting tour, and ‘used in or for sport’, as sporting bullet, sporting cartridge, sporting dog, sporting gear, sporting goods, sporting gun, sporting jacket.
1728Ramsay Anacreontic on Love 25 If that the rain Has wrang'd aught of my sporting-gear. 1789White Selborne cii, No sporting dogs will flush woodcocks till inured to the scent and trained to the sport. 1793–(title), The Sporting Magazine; or Monthly Calendar of the Transactions of the Turf. 1815Ann. Reg., Chron. 110 Several persons of fashion as well as sporting celebrity. 1818Scott Rob Roy v, The uniform of a sporting association. 1820W. Tooke Lucian I. 109 My little sporting-dog..began to bark. 1825T. Hook Sayings Ser. ii. Man of Many Fr. (Colburn) 87 Dyson could always make up a little sporting party. 1837Dickens Sk. Boz 2nd Ser. 53 A brown coat, something between a great⁓coat and a ‘sporting’ jacket, on his back. 1849C. Brontë Shirley III. iv. 75 He reads only a sporting paper. 1860Dickens Uncomm. Trav. x, If I cherished betting propensities, I should probably be found registered in sporting newspapers [etc.]. 1869Boyd's Business Directory 500 John H. Mann, importer and dealer in guns, fishing tackle, gun powder, and all sporting goods. 1879Cassell's Techn. Educ. I. 271/1 The stout pasteboard sporting cartridges. 1885‘Mrs. Alexander’ At Bay ii, A little further conversation on financial and sporting topics. 1901Bookman Oct. 123/2 Americans..have noted the peculiarities of the diction of the writers of the sporting columns. 1907M. E. Braddon Dead Love has Chains vi. 130 Slang has to be forgiven in a man, like smoking, and sporting papers, and motors. 1915Lit. Digest 21 Aug. 360/3 Bozeman Bulger.. contributes to the sporting page of the New York Evening World. 1920Times 14 June 15/3 Among the sporting events which follow each other in..June, Royal Ascot..is unique. 1961P. White Riders in Chariot ix. 259 He would..go away, or reach for the sporting page. 1978R. B. Parker Judas Goat xxii. 135 ‘Picked up a new shotgun at a sporting goods store,’ he said.
c. Special Combs., as sporting-box, a small residence for use during the sporting season (see box n.2 14); sporting door University slang (see quot. and sport v. 11 b); sporting editor U.S., a sports editor; sporting-house, a house, hotel, or inn frequented by sportsmen; U.S. a betting or gambling house; a brothel or disorderly house; † sporting-piece, a plaything; sporting print, a print of a scene taken from the field-sports; also transf.; † sporting stock, a laughing-stock; a butt.
1840Howitt Visits Remark. Places 1st Ser. 210 The Duke of Devonshire's house..serves for a *sporting-box, when his Grace comes hither in autumn to the moors.
1852Bristed Five Yrs. in Eng. Univ. (ed. 2) 58 Be it premised, for the benefit of the uninitiated, that Oxonians call the *sporting door ‘the oak’.
1857Spirit of Times 1 Aug. 340/2 We see exactly, where the ‘*sporting editor’ of The Times has made his fatal mistake about handicaps and handicappers. 1899T. Hall Tales 128 The somewhat intellectual-looking sporting editor of the aforesaid Universe.
1857Hughes Tom Brown i. iv, It is a well-known *sporting-house, and the breakfasts are famous. 1894Stead If Christ came to Chicago 5 The novice in the sporting house, as well as the hardened old harridan who drives the trade in human flesh, are herded together.
1740–1Richardson Pamela II. 36 Here I am again! a pure *Sporting-piece for the Great! a mere Tennis-ball of Fortune.
1849Thackeray Pendennis I. xviii. 168 Six *sporting prints, and four groups of opera-dancers..formed the late occupant's pictorial collection. 1964R. Jeffries Embarrassing Death viii. 84 Two thousand men eager to pay five or ten shillings for a ‘sporting print’ every month. 1973G. Greene Honorary Consul ii. iii. 81 A corridor hung with Victorian sporting prints: riders falling into a stream, checked at a bullfinch, rebuked by the master.
a1553Udall Royster D. iii. iii, We do hym loute and flocke, And make him among vs, our common *sporting stocke.
▪ II. sporting, ppl. a.|ˈspɔətɪŋ|
[f. sport v.]
1. a. Engaged in sport or play.
1653Holcroft Procopius, Vandal Wars i. 22 It was then acounted as an idle riddle among sporting boys. 1725Pope Odyss. vi. 112 O'er the green mead the sporting virgins play.
†b. Sportive; playful. Obs. rare.
1600J. Pory tr. Leo's Africa i. 40 [An elephant] will in a sporting maner gently heave up with his snowte such persons as he meeteth. 1656W. Dugard tr. Comenius' Gate Lat. Unl. 311 They shall feed not upon Ambrosia and Nectar (as the sporting poets did fain) but on hidden..sweets. 1712Swift Wonderful Prophecy Wks. 1751 III. i. 173 Think not that this baleful dog-star only shaketh his tail at you in waggery... It is not a sporting tail, but a fiery tail.
c. Of plants, etc. (See sport v. 4 b.)
1850Beck's Florist 211 We would recommend a trial of the seed from these sporting flowers. 1859Darwin Orig. Spec. i. (1860) 9 ‘Sporting plants’; by this term gardeners mean a single bud or offset, which suddenly assumes a new and sometimes very different character from that of the rest of the plant. 1886Field 6 Mar. 303/2 The sporting character of roses was as much observed at that time as now.
2. a. Interested in, accustomed to take part in, field sports or similar amusements; spec. in phr. sporting parson.
1748C'tess Shaftesbury in Priv. Lett. Ld. Malmesbury (1870) I. 71 There we met several sporting gentlemen. 1826F. Reynolds Life & Times I. iii. 99 The family consisted of the Dowager Lady Grandison,..an old Irish Major—a sporting parson—the house apothecary—my father, my aunt, and myself. 1828Lytton Pelham II. xxiv, Sporting characters..were a species of bipeds that I would never recognise as belonging to the human race. 1859Thackeray Virgin. vi, Harry was away from home with some other sporting friends. 1885M. E. Braddon Wyllard's Weird iv, ‘I can't think what has come to Grahame,’ muttered a sporting squire to his next neighbour. 1901Daily Tel. 23 July 10/6 Those who imagined that the last ‘sporting parson’ had disappeared from the Church of England are quite mistaken. 1982M. Young Elmhirsts of Dartington ii. 21 His mother..meant him to be a priest, not a sporting parson..but a proper God-fearing priest.
b. Esp. sporting man; now used to denote a sportsman of an inferior type or one who is interested in sport from purely mercenary motives. Also used in other collocations referring to low gaming and betting.
1824R. Humphreys Mem. J. Decastro 206 Bob Todrington, a sporting man (caricatured by Old Dighton). 1840Barham Ingol. Leg. Ser. i. St. Odille vi, Now I think I've been told,—for I'm no sporting man,—That the ‘knowing-ones’ call this by far the best plan. 1853R. S. Surtees Sp. Tour (1893) 235 ‘Is he inclined to go the pace?’ ‘Oh, quite,’ replied Jack; ‘his great desire is to be thought a sportsman.’ ‘A sportsman, or a sporting man?’ asked Soapey. 1857Househ. Words 12 Sept. 264/1 With its sparring snobs, and flashing satins, and sporting gents and painted cheeks. 1889Pall Mall G. 21 Oct. 6/1 Every sporting man is flattered if termed a sportsman, but it would be almost an insult to speak to a sportsman as a sporting man. 1902G. B. Shaw Mrs Warren's Profession p. xxix, Well, does anybody who knows the sporting world really believe that bookmakers are worse than their neighbors? 1946K. Tennant Lost Haven (1947) ii. 40 Her mother was entertaining some sporting friends who had dropped in to settle up certain transactions. 1967S. Beckett Stories & Texts for Nothing iii. 84 Thronged already with sporting men fevering to get their bets out of harm's way before the bars open.
c. N. Amer. Used spec. to denote a prostitute or loose woman, as sporting girl, sporting woman. Cf. sportswoman b.
1925Amer. Speech I. 151/2 The woman of the under⁓world is spoken of as a ‘sporting woman’. 1938A. J. Liebling Back where I came From 152 Most of the women..go out by the day as house-workers. There may be a few sporting girls, but if so they don't work their own block. 1951E. Paul Springtime in Paris iv. 89 The place Xavier Privas, where the former sporting girls and their male friends congregate. 1971J. Gray Red Lights on Prairies vi. 143 The existence of a colony of sporting women at Nose Creek was prejudicially affecting the morals and welfare of the Community.
3. a. Characterized by sport or sportsmanlike conduct; affording or producing sport. Also, of or characterized by conduct consonant with that of a sportsman or ‘good sport’.
1799Times 1 June 4/3 Hunting Box, pleasantly situate in a sporting part of the Country. 1867F. Francis Angling iv. (1880) 136 It is the most sporting way of fishing for them. 1893Times 29 Apr. 11/4 The debate was naturally too one-sided to afford any sporting interest either to the combatants or to the spectators. 1897M. Kingsley W. Africa 617 Those very sporting vessels, the British and African, and the Royal African steamers. 1920‘O. Douglas’ Penny Plain xi. 115 ‘Isn't it awful..about our minister marrying..a girl twenty years younger than himself.’ ‘But how sporting of him,’ Pamela said. 1923Wodehouse Inimitable Jeeves x. 112, I had.. got as far as the lift before I remembered what it was that I had meant to do to reward Jeeves for his really sporting behaviour in this matter of the chump Cyril. 1962S. Raven Close of Play iii. xv. 186 By declaring when they did, they left Baron's Lodge with three-hundred and twenty-two runs to make in two hours... It was, on the whole, a sporting declaration.
b. sporting chance, a chance such as is met with or taken in sport; one of an uncertain or doubtful nature. Also, an opportunity that a sportsman might consider. colloq.
1897M. Kingsley W. Africa 252 One must diminish dead certainties to the level of sporting chances along here. 1913Granta 7 Mar. 255/2 If bad shows are booked for this theatre the actors are not the people to be blamed; they are, naturally, trying to do their best—give them a sporting chance. 1977M. Allen Spence in Petal Park xxxi. 146 All that rubbish they learnt on the rugger field about giving the other fellow a sporting chance... The world just doesn't work like that. |