| 释义 |
▪ I. ˈstop-gap
[f. stop v. + gap n.1 (From the phrase to stop a gap: see gap n.1 2 b and 6 b.)]
†1. An argument in defence of some point attacked. Obs.
1533More Debell. Salem Wks. 986/2 But yet hath this good man one stoppe gappe for me stil, to proue alwai that mi sample is not lyke.
2. Something that temporarily supplies a need; a makeshift. Also, of a person: One who temporarily occupies an office, etc. until a permanent appointment can be made.
1691Shadwell Scowrers iv. i. 35 Reads. Yet I have sent you a bill for 250l. to receive... This won't do, but thou art a good Dad, 'tis a pretty Stop Gap. 1731Fall of Mortimer i. i. 9, I hate your Stop-gaps; they were never good for England. 1774Foote Cozeners i. Wks. 1799 II. 147, I must desire you to find out some other agent: I declare off! you sha'n't make a stop-gap of me! 1804Collins Scripscrap. p. vi, A Bit or a Scrap often serves, as a Stop-gap, to fill up the Void of an idle Hour. 1827Hare Guesses Ser. i. 1 Moral prejudices are the stopgaps of virtue. 1883Athenæum 8 Sept. 299/1 Altogether his volume is merely a stopgap pending the appearance of the book which is to supersede Mill. 1911J. H. Rose Pitt & Gt. War xx. 447 Addington soon made it apparent that he was no stop gap.
3. An utterance intended to fill up a gap or an awkward pause in conversation or discourse.
[1684: see 5.] 1707J. Stevens tr. Quevedo's Com. Wks. (1709) 416 A Compliment..is the common Stop gap. [a1764,1885: see 5.] 1886H. W. Lucy Diary Gladstone Parlt. 211 Besides, if he is ever at a loss for a word, he can always throw in ‘I am not one of those who’, or ‘I venture to say’. These stop-gaps..have been found very convincing.
4. In physical sense: Something to stop up a hole. rare.
1872Geo. Eliot Middlem. xli, A bit of ink and paper, which has long been an innocent wrapping or stop-gap, may at last be laid open under the one pair of eyes which [etc.].
5. attrib. passing into adj., with sense ‘filling a gap, pause, etc.’
1684J. Lacy Sir H. Buffoon i. 5 There's my Ladies little Dog..; then a Horse stolen or stray'd... Then there's the old stop-gap Ditto; and these are for ever and ever the news of the Gazette. a1764Lloyd Ode to Genius 20 Vain every phrase in curious order set, On each side leaning on the (stop-gap) epithet. 1885Proc. Amer. Soc. Psych. Research I. 312 (Cent.) The ‘well's’ and ‘ah's’, ‘don't-you-know's’, and other stop-gap interjections. 1885J. Chamberlain Sp. 13 June 146 What will be known in history as the ‘Stop-gap’ Government.
▪ II. stop-gap, v.
Brit. |ˈstɒpgap|, U.S. |ˈstɑpˌgæp|
[‹ stop-gap n.]
1. trans. To fill, fix, or attend to using a stopgap.
1918Times 24 July 8/3 We have been stop-gapping situations from day to day. 1969E. Brathwaite in K. Ramchand & C. Gray West Indian Poetry (1972) 78 The wooden trap was chipped and chopped..And used to stop-Gap fences. 2001Times (Shreveport, Lousiana) (Nexis) 30 Oct. 7 a, Council members beat around the budget bush, discussing the pros and cons of stop-gapping recurring city budget requirements with casino revenues.
2. intr. To act as or use a stopgap; to fill a post or meet a need temporarily.
1918Proc. Gen. Comm. National Liberal Federation in Pamphlets & Leaflets for 1915–18 (Liberal Publ. Department) 76 Surely the women who are stop-gapping in the great standing industries and equipping the armies are fit to vote at 21. 1991Times 5 Mar. 40/1 Then Honda took off and went to McLaren, and Williams stop-gapped with a Judd engine. 2004N.Y. Mag. 7 June 24/1, I was living in Manhattan, stopgapping at a public-relations firm. |