| 释义 |
spring chicken
[f. spring n.1 6 b.]
1. A small chicken (esp. a roasting bird); spec. one aged between eleven and fourteen weeks and weighing around one and a half kilograms (see also quot. 1958).
1780J. Woodforde Diary 13 June (1924) I. 285 We had for dinner..three nice Spring Chicken rosted. 1849D. J. Browne Amer. Poultry Yd. (1855) 107 Generally speaking, spring chickens are more desirable. 1892[see on prep. 20 f]. 1917Harrods Gen. Catal. 1267 Poultry... Chickens (Spring). 1943L. I. Wilder These Happy Golden Years xxi. 191 Ma finished frying a spring chicken while the new potatoes and the peas were cooked. 1958Times 18 Aug. 11/2 The term ‘spring chicken’ has come to be something of a misnomer for the small bird now available at poulterers{ddd}all the year round. It is the product of a specialist industry which has developed this particular type of bird to come to maturity in about 10 weeks only. 1974Times 7 Mar. 13/5 Spring chickens are also in the shops, these are a little older [than poussins]—from eight weeks to four months.
2. fig. A young person. Freq. in phr. to be no spring chicken and varr., to be no longer young. colloq. (orig. U.S.).
1910National Police Gaz. (U.S.) 6 Aug. 3/1 She wasn't a Spring chicken, by any means, yet she wasn't old. a1911D. G. Phillips Susan Lenox (1917) II. ii. 20 Miss Hinkle was showing her age—and she was ‘no spring chicken’. 1964‘E. McBain’ Axe vii. 125 I'm not a spring chicken any more... I'm fifty-two years old. 1973G. Beare Snake on Grave iv. 23 She was no spring chicken any more, she was pushing forty. 1977New Yorker 10 Oct. 131/1 Americans were impressed by Dr. White's prescription whenever they saw a photo of President Eisenhower swinging a golf club or of Dr. White, no spring chicken himself, bent low over the handlebars of his bicycle. 1981D. M. Thomas White Hotel iv. i. 145 You're just a spring chicken, Lisa dear! |