释义 |
▪ I. streel, v. Chiefly Anglo-Irish.|striːl| Also streal. [Cf. Irish straoillim, to trail, drag along the ground.] intr. To trail on the ground; to stream, float at length. Also of persons, to stroll, wander aimlessly.
1805E. Cavanagh Let. 20 Aug. in Londonderry & Hyde Russian Jrnls. (1934) ii. 182 In walk'd a Grenadier of a Man..& after him streal'd in at his heels a Girl. 1839Carleton Fardorougha i. 13 It's on your knees you ought to be this same night,..an' not grumblin' an' sthreelin' about the place. 1848Thackeray Van. Fair xx, She had earrings like chandeliers; you might have lighted 'em up, by Jove—and a yellow satin train that streeled after her like the tail of a comet. 1892J. Barlow Irish Idylls iii. 66 Everybody else thought that..they would have him streeling home again in a couple of days. 1943J. Stuart Taps for Private Tussie iv. 57 It was after four o'clock when Aunt Vittie and Grandma came strealin up the Turnpike from town. Hence as n.1, a straggling, untidy procession of persons; ˈstreeler, a disreputable, idle person; ˈstreeling ppl. a. and vbl. n.
1841Fraser's Mag. XXIV. 216 No great, long, strealing tails of periods,—no staring peonies and hollyhocks of illustrations. c1874D. Boucicault in M. R. Booth Eng. Plays of 19th Cent. (1969) II. 202, I was thrying to get away from him..but he was at my heels all the way, and Tatthers at his heels. A nice sthreel we made along the road. 1884Harper's Mag. Oct. 713/2 The streeling lines of flapping wings and their rasping bronchial note accorded well. 1885‘Lucas Malet’ Col. Enderby's Wife iv. iv, Across the lawn there drifted one of those streeling milk-white gossamers. 1907J. M. Synge Playboy ii. 48 An ugly young streeler with a murderous gob on him. 1927E. Bowen Hotel xvi. 184 Miss Fitzgerald's party going forward in the leisurely and spread-out manner called in Ireland ‘strealing’. 1937G. Frankau More of Us ii. 30 Remembered she her own pre-ducal streelings: Some boy she had filched from her own mother dear; When all the world that either knew was Ealing's? 1971T. Kilroy Big Chapel ix. 177 She never went anywhere without a streel of children. ▪ II. streel, n.2 Chiefly Anglo-Ir.|striːl| Also sthreal, sthreel. [ad. Ir. s(t)raoill(e) untidy or awkward person; cf. straille wench or untidy girl and prec.] A disreputable, untidy woman; a slut.
1842S. Lover Handy Andy xliii. 322 To marry a thrampin' sthreel like that—a great red-headed Jack. 1909G. B. Shaw Press Cuttings 36 Not out o bed yet! Go and pull her out be the heels, the lazy sthreel. 1919― O'Flaherty V.C. in Heartbreak House 185, I thought that covetious sthreal in there was a walking angel; and now if ever I marry at all I'll marry a Frenchwoman. 1922Joyce Ulysses 354 She did look a streel tugging the two kids along with the flimsy blouse..like a rag on her back and a bit of her petticoat hanging like a caricature. 1936M. Franklin All that Swagger xx. 188 That streel must have gone off with James Fullwood. 1961‘F. O'Brien’ Hard Life i. 11 A streel of a girl with long lank fair hair arrived to look after myself and the brother. 1970D. M. Davin Not Here, not Now i. i. 8 She certainly kept the house in trim, even if she always looked a bit of a streel. 1978D. Murphy Place Apart iv. 78 Jimmy wouldn't like a streel. Hence ˈstreelish a.; ˈstreelishness.
1936M. Franklin All that Swagger xxii. 218 Belike she has picked up some of me brogue as well as some civilised habits, if she doesn't fall back into her streelishness. 1974E. O'Brien in New Review Apr. 35/2 We saw this wild creature coming... Her costume was streelish. |