| 单词 | returned empty |
| 释义 | > as lemmasreturned empty b. returned empty: an empty cask, case, bottle, etc., returned to the sender or seller; (also figurative) a person who or vessel which has returned after an unsuccessful time away (see quots.). Frequently in plural. Now chiefly historical. ΘΚΠ society > occupation and work > equipment > receptacle or container > container or package for goods > [noun] > empty, returned to sender returned empty1839 1839 Leeds Mercury 16 Nov. 4/6 We refer our mercantile readers to an advertisement respecting a self-acting table as to what is termed ‘Returned Empties’. 1848 T. Boyle Hope for Canals! 17 Returned empties were always conveyed free by the carriers. 1890 Pall Mall Gaz. 12 Apr. 6/3 They were Colonial Bishops—returned empties, as the profane scoffingly call them. 1915 Railway Gaz. 5 Nov. 451/1 The elimination of the ‘Returned Empty’. 1946 P. Bottome Lifeline xv. 137 A milk lorry..goes from here taking returned empties, and bringing back milk at dawn. 1961 B. Fergusson Watery Maze ix. 220 Several of these [ships] were veterans both of Ironclad and Torch, which meant that they had already spent months in unprofitable voyaging as returned empties, so to speak. 1977 C. Allen Raj i. 23/2 Early in the nineteenth century..unmarried women were regularly shipped out..to meet the demand for wives... Those who returned without husbands or fiancés were known as ‘Returned Empties’. 2003 M. Pearson Indian Ocean viii. 273 Even more demeaningly, those who returned home unbetrothed were Returned Empties. < as lemmas |
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