单词 | tar baby |
释义 | tar babynoun informal 1A difficult problem that is only aggravated by attempts to solve it: disposal of nuclear waste was a problem whose solution was endlessly delayed, a tar baby no one wanted anything to do with...
2US offensive A contemptuous term for a black person. The term tar baby is most commonly used to refer to a difficult problem that is only aggravated by attempts to solve it, alluding to an incident in Joel Chandler Harris’s Uncle Remus (1881). The use as a racial slur arose by the 1940s, and because of its highly offensive nature, the original meaning is now often regarded as offensive by association OriginWith allusion to the doll smeared with tar as a trap for Brer Rabbit, in J. C. Harris's Uncle Remus. |
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