| 释义 |
▪ I. doodle, n. colloq.|ˈduːd(ə)l|
[cf. LG. dudeltopf, -dop, simpleton, noodle, lit. night-cap.]
1. A silly or foolish fellow; a noodle.
1628Ford Lover's Mel. iii. i, Vanish, doodles, vanish! 1764Foote Mayor of G. ii. i, Why, doodle, jackanapes harkee, who am I? 1845Cobden Speeches (1872) 179 The Noodles and Doodles of the aristocracy.
2. A doodle-bug. U.S.
1887Harper's Mag. July 276/1 She wondered how the nice, fat little round ‘doodles’ were getting on in their tin can under the house; she never had had such a fine box of bait. 1939These are our Lives (U.S.) 157 They not knowing any more than a doodle in the woods what she was saying.
3. doodle-bug
a. U.S., a tiger-beetle, or the larva of this or various other insects.
c1866G. W. Bagby Old Virginia Gentleman (1910) 48 Try to tame a catbird, call doodle-bugs out of their holes. 1876‘Mark Twain’ Tom Sawyer viii. 76 Doodle-bug, doodle-bug, tell me what I want to know! 1903S. E. White Forest vii. 81, I never hesitate to offer them [sc. trout] any kind of a doodle-bug they may fancy. 1944Democrat 7 Dec. 2/2 Doodlebugs are those little insects which fan out or blow out little conical shaped holes in sandy or dusty places.
fig.1908C. E. Mulford Orphan 163 You blamed doodle bug, yu! 1918― Man fr. Bar-20 xviii. 193 ‘Yo're a fine pair of doodle-bugs’... ‘Don't you know an opportunity when you see one?’ 1938‘E. Queen’ Four of Hearts (1939) i. iii. 34 She'll tell you more about these doodlebugs than they know themselves.
b. As a nickname also applied to the German pilotless plane or flying bomb of the war of 1939–45; ellipt. doodle.
1944Times 22 June 2/1 The first fighter pilot to shoot down what the R.A.F. men call a ‘doodlebug’ was Flight Sergeant Maurice Rose, of Glasgow. 1944Aeronautics Aug. 27/1 The most elaborate German automatic weapon, the flying bomb,..doodle-bug, or power-bomb. 1944N. & Q. 9 Sept. 122/1 The doodle-bug.— The new weapon with which our enemy has attacked us has borne a number of names since its appearance over Southern England on 13 June... The public in London has now generally accepted doodle bug, doodle bomb or simply doodle. 1969T. Parker Twisting Lane 79, I left school in 1944, just after the doodle-bugs finished.
4. An aimless scrawl made by a person while his mind is more or less otherwise applied.
1937R. M. Arundel Everybody's Pixillated p. ix, A ‘doodle’ is a scribbling or sketch made while the conscious mind is concerned with matters wholely unrelated to the scribbling. 1938Life 14 Nov. 7/2 It's a doodle picture. I've seen it dozens of times on telephone pads and what not. 1942Punch 25 Feb. 158/1 Mr. Clement Attlee, the Premier's deputy, industriously drew doodles of intricate pattern. 1947Auden Age of Anxiety (1948) i. 25 On memories stuffed With dead men's doodles. 1959H. Gardner Business of Criticism ii. ii. 120 When a writer's first drafts, scraps of memoranda, and ‘doodles’ have been preserved, we may possibly have a limited success in tracing the workings of the creative imagination. 1961Times 23 Nov. 15/2 Mr. Gwyn Thomas lets a witty pen run doodlingly on. 1970H. Braun Parish Churches xviii. 219 Geometrical ‘doodles’ made with a mason's compasses are medieval.
Sense 3 b in Dict. becomes 3 e. Add: [3.] [ doodle-bug.] b. A divining rod or other device supposed by prospectors to indicate the presence of oil, minerals, etc.; also transf., a seismograph. orig. U.S.
1924G. C. Henderson Keys to Crookdom xiii. 157 One old fraud who was tried in the Federal court had a ‘chemical battery’ or ‘doodlebug’ oil location [sic], which he said would spot oil-producing ground at once. 1934M. H. Weseen Dict. Amer. Slang v. 89 Doodle bug, a divining rod used in oil fields; a fake instrument used to find oil pools. 1940J. H. Plenn Saddle in Sky i. viii. 119 The most familiar names for their divining rods were doodlebugs and wigglesticks. 1951K. Roberts Henry Gross & his Dowsing Rod viii. 90 For years, like all engineers, I coupled a forked stick with the ‘doodle bugs’ which supposedly locate ore and treasure. 1979Oil & Gas Jrnl. 16 July 17/2 Deputy Secretary O'Leary..is en route to Zurich to demonstrate a doodlebug that can find oil, gold, and mummies—and goes so far into the earth it has detected the Gang of Four at 8,000 miles. 1985Ibid. 29 Apr. 54/1 But that's no reason to equate the pocket calculators of energy forecasters with the witching sticks and doodlebugs of the past.
c. A prospector for oil, minerals, etc.; also transf., a geophysicist or other scientist employed by an oil company. orig. U.S.
1933E. Caldwell God's Little Acre x. 149 ‘Sure, I'm leaving,’ Will said. ‘I can't be wasting my time digging holes in the ground. I'm no damn doodle-bug.’ 1966G. E. Sweet Hist. Geophysical Prospecting (1978) I. xvi. 53 The doodlebug has more faith in oil revealing its whereabouts by means of some quality of the oil itself. 1982Fortune 25 Jan. 95/1 The geophones..transmit the impulses along the cable to a recording truck—the doghouse, in doodlebug parlance.
d. A midget racing car. Hence transf., any small vehicle: spec. (a) Railways, a ‘New Style’ or similar locomotive; (b) Mil., a reconnaissance car or tank; (c) a tractor or truck modified to increase its performance. orig. U.S.
1937Lea Bridge Speedway Programme 18 Aug. 14 A Doodle Bug doodled its way around the track one day last week... Occupant of the car was none other than..Fay Taylour... Fay wants to drive midgets. 1940Collier's 29 June 11/1, I mean midget autos. Doodlebugs. 1941Amer. Speech XVI. 165/1 Doodle bug, reconnaissance car, or tank. 1941J. Smiley Hash House Lingo 22 Doodlebug, subway train. 1966K. Möller Amer. & Brit. Railway English (typescript, Stockholm Univ.) 45 Doodlebug is an amusing notation for a type of self-propelled car (now practically obsolete) which is capable of hauling a few other cars.—This nickname must have emanated from the striped doodlebug larva; the front end of these cars was often painted with broad diagonal stripes to make them clearly visible. (Doodlebug is found also in B[ritish] E[nglish], denoting any new style locomotive.) 1980N.Y. Times 23 Aug. i. 11/5 The ‘doodlebug’, a small monoplane for private pilots, was his [sc. James S. McDonnell Jr.'s] first major creation. 1984Christian Science Monitor 13 Apr. 30/2 It was a one-horse job with a four-foot cutter bar, and we had shortened the ‘sharves’ so we could attach it to our doodlebug tractor.
Hence ˈdoodlebugger n., a prospector; also, an oil geophysicist or seismographer; ˈdoodlebugging vbl. n., prospecting, esp. for oil. U.S.
1939Sat. Even. Post 7 Jan. 18/3 Before Western spends a hundred thousand sinking a test hole, we're supposed to show them where to drill and why! That's doodlebugging! 1944Calif. Folklore Q. III. 55 In east Texas near the town of Linden a doodlebugger had located an oil field ‘that would make Spindle Top look like a rainbow on a slush pile,’ as he described it. 1982Fortune 25 Jan. 96/2 The doodlebugger's ambition is to reproduce seismic pictures with the fine detail of a coffee-table book of glossy photographs.
▪ II. ˈdoodle, v.1
[f. prec. n.]
1. trans. To make a fool of, befool, cheat. dial. or slang.
1823Moncrieff Tom & Jerry i. vii. (Farmer), I have been dished and doodled out of forty pounds to-day. 1834M. Scott Cruise Midge (1859) 439 It might have doodled our whole party. 1880W. Cornw. Gloss., Doodle, to cheat; to deceive; to trifle.
2. intr. To make a doodle (sense 4); to draw or scrawl aimlessly. Also fig. (partly by assoc. with dawdle v.), to idle. Colloq.
1937Lit. Digest 26 June 19/3 ‘But everybody doodles.’ So Gary Cooper, as Longfellow Deeds, in ‘Mr. Deeds Goes to Town’, defended himself. He wasn't crazy because he drew squares and circles on scraps of paper —he was just ‘doodling’. 1948‘J. Tey’ Franchise Affair xviii. 217 Robert sat doodling on..blotting-paper. A herring-bone pattern. 1955H. Spring These Lovers fled Away iv. 128 When we had changed from a main line train and were doodling across country. 1967New Scientist 12 Oct. 102/1 At boring committee meetings, in common with others who doodle, I can escape with relief into the insulated world of mathematical abstraction.
Hence ˈdoodling vbl. n. and ppl. a.; ˈdoodlingly adv.; also ˈdoodler n., one who doodles.
1846Cornish Prov. Dial. 55 ‘None of thy doodling, thee bean't St. George, no more than me.’ 1937Manch. Guardian 5 May 8/4 Doodling is fidgeting about pictorially with a pen or pencil at odd moments to pass the time... In Australia..[caterers] have provided special menu cards with plenty of space on them in the hope of luring doodlers into doodling on these instead of on the tablecloth. 1944Times 17 Mar. 5/4 It is nevertheless a thrill to the humble ‘doodling’ addict to discover that Marshal Stalin himself is of the brotherhood. 1951E. A. Mittelholzer Shadows move among Them iii. viii. 326 He left it a doodled smear on the Penguin. 1953C. Day Lewis Italian Visit iii. 39 Lightning sketches, Symbolic doodlings, hour by hour set down Haphazardly. 196020th Cent. Mar. 233 Poetry is not the free unfettered self-expression of the doodler.
Add:[2.] Also trans.
1959K. Waterhouse Billy Liar v. 69 A yellow pad on which he was doodling his ideas for a streamlined hearse. 1977N. MacCaig Tree of Strings 42 The weather doodles a faint cloud On the blue Then pensively washes it out, Making the blue boastful. 1985L. Whistler Laughter & Urn xxviii. 253 During some weary lecture, he had doodled a Renaissance tank, with swags, flags and even urns.
▪ III. doodle, v.2 Chiefly Sc.|ˈduːd(ə)l|
Also doudle.
[a. Ger. dudeln in same sense (of Slavonic origin: cf. Polish dudlió), dudelsack bagpipe: prob. associated with tootle.]
trans. To play (the bagpipes). Also doodle-sack, a bagpipe.
1816Scott Old Mort. iv, ‘I am wearied wi' doudling the bag o' wind a' day.’ 1824― Redgauntlet Let. xi, ‘Thou sack-doudling son of a whore!’ a1846Sir G. Head in Worcester, Doodle-sack. 1847–78Halliw., Doodle-sack, a bag-pipe. Kent. |