| 释义 |
▪ I. sulky, n.|ˈsʌlkɪ|
Also 8–9 sulkey, 9 sulkee, sulkie.
[subst. use of sulky a.]
1. A light two-wheeled carriage or chaise (sometimes without a body), seated for one person: now used principally in America for trials of speed between trotting-horses. (So called because it admits only one person. Cf. désobligeant.)
1756Connoisseur No. 112 ⁋4 A formal female seated in a Sulky, foolishly pleased with having the whole vehicle to herself. 1775J. Adams in Fam. Lett. (1876) 55 My mare..ran and dashed the body of the sulky all to pieces. 1796Southey Lett. fr. Spain (1799) 118 Many sulkies drawn by three mules abreast. 1860O. W. Holmes Elsie V. xi, The doctor turned and looked through the little round glass in the back of the sulky. 1882Standard 1 Dec. 5/4 (Canada) The din and noise of waggons,..buggies, sulkees, and ox teams. 1884B'ham Daily Post 23 Feb. 2/5 American Trotting Sulkie, weighs 56 lb.; to carry 180 lb.
2. transf.
a. A bathing-machine for one. jocular.
1806–7J. Beresford Miseries Hum. Life (1807) xiv. vi, On re-entering your Sulky in your new character,..you discover, for the first time, that your own towel is safely locked up at home.
b. (See quot.)
1862Mrs. Speid Last Years India 129 A little silver ‘sulky’,..a small spherical box, pierced all over with small holes [etc.]. This pretty apparatus is intended for brewing a single cup of tea, by the morosely inclined.
3. Short for sulky-plough (see 4).
1891C. Roberts Adrift Amer. 37 Two single-furrow sulkies with three horses each.
4. attrib. passing into adj., applied to (a) a set of articles for the use of a single person, (b) an agricultural implement having a seat for the driver (U.S.).
1786Mackenzie Lounger No. 89 ⁋7 A dispute about the age of a sulky set of China. 1867Trans. Ill. Agric. Soc. VI. 49 Driving a sulky plow, and plowing his one-fourth acre. 1868Rep. Iowa Agric. Soc. 1867 154 It is then plowed with double-shovel, or sulky cultivators. 1875Knight Dict. Mech. 2452 Sulky-cultivator, one having a seat for the rider, who manages the plows, moving them to the right or left as the plants in the rows may require. Ibid., Sulky-rake, a horse-rake having an elevated seat for the driver. 1879Scribner's Mag. Nov. 137/1 Next spring I..bought me a sulky-plow.
▪ II. sulky, a.|ˈsʌlkɪ|
[app. f. sulk v.2 Cf. NFris. (Sylt) sulkig.]
1. Of persons and their actions: Silently and obstinately ill-humoured; showing a tendency to keep aloof from others and repel their advances by refusing to speak or act.
1744M. Bishop Life & Adv. vi. 45 It is often seen in press'd Men that they are stubborn and sulky. 1790Burns Tam o' Shanter 10 Our hame, Whare sits our sulky sullen dame, Gathering her brows like gathering storm. 1821Scott Kenilw. iii, He has sulky ways too, breaking off intercourse with all that are of the place. 1834James J. Marston Hall xi, My companion generally rode on in sulky silence. 1856Ruskin Elem. Drawing ii. (1857) 134 The true zeal and patience of a quarter of an hour are better than the sulky and inattentive labour of a whole day. 1880W. Harris Serm. Boys & Girls (1881) 40 They were like..sulky children who would be pleased with nothing.
b. Of animals; spec. of a fish (cf. sulk v.2 b).
1810Scott Lady of L. i. x, Back limp'd..The sulky leaders of the chase. 1822Lamb Elia i. Dream children, A great sulky pike hanging midway down the water. 1828Davy Salmonia 30, I thought after a fish had been hooked, he remained sick and sulky for some time.
2. Of inanimate natural objects, the weather, etc.: Gloomy, dismal. Of things, with respect to their growth, progress, or movement: Sluggish. Also dial., difficult to work.
1817W. Irving in Life & Lett. (1864) I. 380 The weather is still sulky and threatening. 1825Scott 11 Oct. in Fam. Let. (1894) II. xxiii. 350 One's friends are not so easily entertained on such a sulky day as this. 1849Cupples Green Hand ix. (1856) 85 A sulky patch of dark-gray sky. 1867F. Francis Angling vii. 223 Some, again, are termed ‘sulky lakes’, and are very hard to get fish from at all. 1886Cheshire Gloss., Sulky,..applied to..rock which has no cleavage and is difficult to quarry, very cross-grained timber, &c. 1889E. E. Green in Ceylon Indep. (Cent. Dict.), The condition called sulky as applied to a tea-bush is unfortunately only too common on many estates. 1890Clark Russell Marriage at Sea viii, The sulky undulations of the water. 1905Daily News 31 Aug. 6 The cream..gets ‘sulky’, or it ‘goes to sleep’, and then you may churn all day and get no result.
3. Comb., as sulky-looking adj.
1828Lytton Pelham II. xxv, A few dull and sulky-looking fir-trees. 1844H. Stephens Bk. Farm II. 692 The dull sulky-looking colt. |