| 释义 |
▪ I. dime, n.|daɪm|
Forms: 4–5 dyme, (5 des(s)ime, dyeme), 5–6 dysme, 5–9 disme, 6 dism, desme, deeme, deme, 6–9 dime.
[a. OF. disme, dime:—L. decima tithe, tenth part, fem. of decimus tenth.]
†1.
a. A tenth part, a tithe paid to the church or to a temporal ruler. Obs. or Hist.
1377Langl. P. Pl. B. xv. 526 Take her landes, ȝe lordes, and let hem lyue by dymes. c1380Wyclif Wks. (1880) 418 Þat pariȝschens shulden drawe fro persouns offeringis & dymes. 1399Pol. Poems (Rolls) I. 412 His purvyours toke, withoute preiere at a parliament, a poundage..and a fifteneth and a dyme eke. c1460Fortescue Abs. & Lim. Mon. xii. (1885) 139 Owre commons..give to thair kynge, at somme tymes quinsimes and dessimes [MS. Digby 145 dismes.] 1494Fabyan Chron. vi. cxlviii. 134 That he myght leuy certayne dymys to wage therwith souldyours. 1502Ord. Crysten Men (W. de W. 1506) ii. xvii. 131 He fasted, he payed the demes, he gaue almesse. 1563–87Foxe A. & M. (1684) I. 799/2 The Cardinal sued a Pardon from Rome, to be freed from all Disms, due to the King by the Church of Winchester. 1580North Plutarch (1676) 404 Now Sylla consecrating the dismes of all his goods unto Hercules [etc.]. a1618Raleigh Rem. 50 In his forty ninth year he had a disme and a fifteenth granted him freely. 1659Howell Lexicon Fr. Prov. 27 From all tymes it was ordained to pay dimes or tithes unto the Lord. 1884L. Oliphant Haifa (1887) 133 The dime..has heretofore been the share of the government.
b. fig. A ‘tithe’ of war, a tenth man sacrificed.
1606Shakes. Tr. & Cr. ii. ii. 19 Euery tythe soule 'mongst many thousand dismes, Hath bin as deere as Helen.
2. a. A silver coin of the United States of America, of the value of 10 cents, or 1/10 of a dollar. pl. Money; financial gain; freq. the dimes (U.S. colloq.).
1786Ord. Continent. Congress U.S. 8 Aug., Mills, Cents, Dimes, Dollars. 1809Kendall Trav. I. xviii. 193 Dimes or tenth parts are mentioned by writers, but never enter into accounts. 1821T. Jefferson Autobiog. Writ. 1892 I. 75 The division into dimes, cents and mills is now..well understood. 1843Spirit of Times 21 Jan. 560/3 Times are hard, and dimes are scarce. 1845S. F. Smith Theatr. Apprenticeship (1847) 7, I, in search of ‘the dimes’, acted plays in newly-built theatres. a1861T. Winthrop J. Brent (1883) xxvi. 233 Count out yer dimes, and I'll fill out a blank bill of sale. 1871Harper's Mag. June 37/2 Among the excursionists there would be..such as travel to gather ideas rather than dimes. 1872O. W. Holmes Poet Breakf.-t. xii. (1885) 320 Not bad, my bargain! Price one dime. 1893Boston (Mass.) Jrnl. 1 Apr. 6/3 The so-called middle-classes..the people who are accustomed to count their nickels and dimes as well as their dollars.
b. attrib. Costing a dime; as in dime novel, applied especially to a cheap sensational novel: cf. penny dreadful, shilling shocker; hence dime-novelish adj., dime-novelist. dime-store U.S., a shop in which the maximum price was originally a dime; also attrib. or as adj., spec. designating a cheap and inferior article; cf. five-and-ten (cent store) (five C. 2).
1859(title) Beadle's dime song book. 1860(title) Beadle's dime book of dreams..compiled from the most accredited sources for the ‘Dime series’. 1861Vanity Fair 26 Jan. 38/2, I invested in the dime editions of startling narratives. 1864N. Amer. Rev. July 304 A Dime Novel is issued each month. 1865A. H. Stephens Diary (1910) 424 A little primer-looking sort of a child's book. It was a dime novel. 1879H. George Progr. & Pov. x. ii. (1881) 443 The boy who reads dime novels wants to be a pirate. 1879Amer. Punch Apr. 40/1 Written to order by the hundred, by a Dime novelist in New York. 1882Century Mag. XXV. 212/1 You are as bad as a dime novel. 1887Scribner's Mag. July 120/1 It was a trifle boyish, and ‘dime-novelish’. 1892Daily News 29 Mar. 2/5 The nuisance of ‘dime shows’ as they are called in America. 1914R. Herrick Clark's Field 7 The facts are not all dime-novelish, but very human and significant. 1928Weseen Crowell's Dict. Eng. Gram. 188 Dime store, colloquial name for a store that specializes in articles selling for ten cents. The five and ten is a variant. 1931Kansas City Star 23 Oct., A dime store in Emporia. 1938Newsweek 31 Jan. 36/1 ‘Best buy’ was a dime-store product, which cost 5 cents a gram. 1942Berrey & Van den Bark Amer. Thes. Slang §21/14 Cheap; paltry,..dime-store.
c. Phr. a dime a dozen, so plentiful as to be almost worthless. Also dime-a-dozen attrib. phr. N. Amer. colloq.
1930C. Terrett Only Saps Work 188 These are mere dime-a-dozen rackets, compared with the truly big-time stock market swindles. 1948Galveston (Texas) News 14 June 7/7 Sunday night at the cocktail party and buffet supper, choice fishing stories were a dime a dozen. 1970M. Pei Words in Sheep's Clothing ii. 12 Coinages of the type of ‘power-pak’ are a dime a dozen. 1977I. Shaw Beggarman, Thief iii. ix. 328 ‘I thought you were too good looking just to be nobody.’ ‘A dime a dozen,’ Wesley said. ‘I'm just a seaman at heart.’
▸ N. Amer. slang. a. Chiefly Gambling. Ten dollars; (also, depending on context) one hundred or one thousand dollars. Cf. dime note n. at Additions.
1958W. Motley Let No Man write my Epitaph 161 A dime is ten dollars. 1978E. Anderson Place on Corner (1981) v. 133 You seen Sonny? I wish I could find him. The stud owe me a dime (ten dollars). 2000N.Y. Rev. Bks. 9 Mar. 24/3 Depending on the size of the game, a ‘nickel’ is $5, $50, or $500; a ‘dime’ is $10, $100, or $1000. 2003N.Y. Times Mag. 17 Aug. 37/3 While L.R. and I were talking, a bet came in to one of the employees in the pen. ‘Lafayette for five dimes,’ she shouted out.
b. Ten dollars' worth of an illicit drug. Cf. nickel n. 2c.
Recorded earliest in dime bag n. at Additions (b).
1965Chicago Tribune 7 Mar. (Mag. section) 29/1 Inside a leg at the other end of the bed was Wally's stash: four nickel bags and two dime bags—$40 worth of heroin altogether. 1970R. Thorp & R. Blake Music of their Laughter 61/1 We smoked about a dime and a half, and man, by this time, we were quite enthusiastically stoned, and we could not move. 1999D. Century Street Kingdom iv. 149 They used to sell dimes of coke in foil paper, folded up in square packets. 2001N.Y. Mag. 11 June 38/2 Black Top's crack was cheap—it sold ‘nicks’ for $5 while most other dealers sold ‘dimes’ for $10.
c. Ten years in prison; a ten-year prison sentence. Cf. nickel n. 2b.
1967‘Iceberg Slim’ Pimp (1998) ii. 30 The son-of-a-bitch is stir crazy. His voice-box screwed up on him a dime ago. He's been the brass nuts here for a double dime. 1976Konky Mohair in D. Wepman et al. Life 105 You can bet he had to do that dime. 1989‘C. Roman’ Foreplay xix. 245 A dime stretch at Dorchester Jail. 2003Wired June 76/3 As ex-ranger Mace Griffin, you mercilessly track down the criminals for whom you wrongly did a dime in the slammer.
▸ dime bag n. orig. and chiefly N. Amer. (a) a bag containing ten cents' worth of something; (b) slang a packet or measure of a small amount (originally ten dollars' worth) of an illicit drug; cf. nickel bag n. at nickel n. and adj. Compounds 2a.
1923N.Y. Times 5 Aug. vi. 12/5 When men went into a shop to buy candy for some one else they would get a *dime bag of some cheap candy that they could stick way down in their pockets for themselves. 1946Syracuse (N.Y.) Herald Amer. 24 Mar. 36/4 The green and yellow paper grass again is being sold by the dime bag. 1965Chicago Tribune 7 Mar. (Mag. section) 29/1 Inside a leg at the other end of the bed was Wally's stash: four nickel bags and two dime bags—$40 worth of heroin altogether. 1998Evening Standard (Nexis) 2 Oct. 29 We used to buy our grass in dime bags for eight bucks.
▸ dime-dropper n. U.S. slang a police informer; cf. to drop a dime at drop v. Additions.
1966N.Y. Post 24 Aug. 30/1 Words like ‘muska’ and ‘*dime dropper’ don't show up on middle class-oriented intelligence tests. 1970G. Scott-Heron Vulture vi. 241 Somebody inna neighborhood wuz a dime dropper. 1996P. Beatty White Boy Shuffle (1997) 85 You tell that dime-dropper Clio she better not leave her witness protection program.
▸ dime note n. U.S. slang a ten-dollar bill.
1915Boston Daily Globe 19 Dec. 37/2 You can lose a ‘nickel note’ of five dollars, a *dime note of ten, a ‘C’ a hundred, or a ‘grand’, a thousand dollars. 2001D. Yeadon Way of Wanderer 156 Costs $100 for twenty minutes in these places. Hell, back home in Texas I can git an hour for a coupla dime notes.
▪ II. † dime, v. Obs. rare.
Also 5 dyme, 7 disme.
[a. F. dîme-r, OF. dismer, diesmer = Pr. desmar, Sp. dezmar, Pg. dezimar, It. decimare:—L. decimāre to take a tithe, (later) to pay tithes, f. decima: see prec.]
trans. a. To take a tenth part of, to tithe. b. To divide into tenths.
1483Caxton Gold. Leg. 64 b/2 He shall taske and dyme your corn and sheues. 1610W. Folkingham Art of Survey ii. iv. 52 Disme or deuide each foote of the Rule..into decimals or Tenths.
Hence † ˈdimable (in 5 dym(e)able) a., tithable.
1489Plumpton Corr. 61 It is not the Kyngs mynd to ses no dymeable land, and we have no suit land, but it is dymable.
▸ trans. U.S. slang. To inform on (a person) to the police. Also to dime on. Cf. to drop a dime at drop v. Additions
1970G. Scott-Heron Vulture i. 37 He wanted it badly enough to take the chance of being dimed on by some punk. 1990J. Wambaugh Golden Orange xvi. 214, I hope I can persuade Starkey to dime the old man. I'd like to make a case the D.A.'d have to prosecute. 2000P. Cornwell Last Precinct (2001) 296 Even if someone out there dimed Mitch, you don't send in a hit man like Matos.
▪ III. dime
obs. form of dim a. and v. |