| 释义 |
stung to the quick sting (one) to the quickTo deeply emotionally hurt or offend one. The comments stung me to the quick, but I remained composed and carried on with the lecture.See also: quick, stingstung to the quickDeeply emotionally hurt or offended. I was stung to the quick to learn that they called my dress tacky behind my back. The hostess, stung to the quick by her guests' words, locked herself in the bedroom upstairs.See also: quick, stungcut to the quickTo be deeply wounded; to have one’s feelings hurt. The noun “quick” means the living, as well as the most vital and important part; today it also means the very sensitive flesh between the fingernails and skin. To be touched to the quick, meaning to be deeply affected, has been used since the sixteenth century; it appears in John Heywood’s Proverbs and in several places in Shakespeare’s plays (Hamlet, The Comedy of Errors, and others). Another version is stung to the quick, as in “The last appellation stung her to the quick” (Henry Fielding, Joseph Andrews, 1742). “Cut to the quick” is a still later wording and has been a cliché since about 1850. See also quick and the dead. See also: cut, quick |