| 单词 | as melancholy as a cat |
| 释义 | > as lemmasas melancholy as a cat b. In extended use, esp. of an animal. Frequently in proverbial phrases, as as melancholy as a cat, etc. Now chiefly in historical context.Certain animals, esp. the hare and the cat, seem to have been associated with melancholy in the Middle Ages, perhaps from their solitary or nocturnal habits. ΘΚΠ the mind > emotion > suffering > dejection > melancholy > [adjective] melancholiousa1393 melancholica1398 darkc1440 adustc1460 melancholyc1475 as melancholy as a cat1592 allichollya1616 fuliginous1646 atrabilious1651 atrabilary1676 atrabilarian1678 hipped1712 splenetic1759 atrabiliarious1761 melancholish1775 atrabiliar1833 atrabiliary1839 atrabilarious1882 a1398 J. Trevisa tr. Bartholomaeus Anglicus De Proprietatibus Rerum f. 279 Þough þey [sc. whelps] be malencoly [L. melancolica] bestes of qualite & of complexioun, ȝit þay..beþ glade and mury and pleyeþ moche.] 1592 J. Lyly Midas v. ii. 100 (Bond) I am as melancholy as a cat. 1593 T. Nashe Christs Teares 25 b The mellancholy Owle, (Deaths ordinary messenger). 1598 W. Shakespeare Henry IV, Pt. 1 i. ii. 73 Zbloud I am as melancholy as a gyb Cat, or a lugd beare. View more context for this quotation 1600 W. Shakespeare Much Ado about Nothing ii. i. 201 I found him heere as melancholy as a Lodge in a Warren. View more context for this quotation 1606 Wily Beguilde 73 Old Grandsir Thickskin, you that sit there as melancholy as a mantletree. 1607 T. Dekker & J. Webster North-ward Hoe i. sig. B I'me as melancholy now as Fleet-streete in a long vacation. 1612 M. Drayton Poly-olbion ii. 28 The melancholie Hare. 1727 J. Gay New Song Similes in J. Swift et al. Misc.: Last Vol. 208 I melancholy, as a cat, Am kept awake to weep. 1787 T. Best Conc. Treat. Angling i. v. 32 He is a solitary, melancholy, and bold fish, always being by himself. 1843 Subterranean 4 Nov. 133/2 One of the Literary shysters..gravely informs the public that on a certain day he sat ‘in his sanctum, melancholy as a monkey in consumption’. 1881 A. Trollope Ayala's Angel III. xliv. 6 But Tom walked forth apparently as sober as a judge, and as melancholy as a hangman. 1992 P. O'Brian Truelove vii. 194 I was growing as melancholy as a gib cat. < as lemmas |
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