| 释义 |
▪ I. † drib, v. Obs.
[app. an onomatopœic formation arising out of drip or drop, the modified consonant expressing a modification of the notion.]
1. intr. To fall in drops; fig., to go on little by little.
1523St. Papers Hen. VIII, VI. 160 Suche drybbing warre, as hit hitherto hathe ben made by the said Princes.
2. ? To dribble, to slaver.
a1529Skelton Crowne Lawrell (R.), Dasyng after dotterels, lyke drunkards that dribbes.
3. trans.
a. To let fall or utter as in driblets.
1533More Debell. Salem Wks. 947/1 In the second side of y⊇ .xxvi. lefe, he dribbeth in a word of spiritual dignity. 1599Nashe Lenten Stuffe (1871) 107 Proverbs..which those, that have bitten with ill bargains of either sort, have dribbed forth in revenge.
b. To let fall in drops or driblets.
1682Southerne Loyal Brother Prol., There's not a Butcher's Wife but Dribs her part, And pities the poor Pageant from her heart.
c. ‘To crop; to cut off, to defalcate. A cant word.’ (J.)
1693Dryden, etc. Juvenal vii. 298 Merchants Gains come short of half the Mart, For he who drives their Bargains, dribs a part.
d. To lead one little by little into something.
a1700Dryden Ovid's Art Love i. (R.), With daily lies she dribs thee into cost, That ear-ring dropt a stone, that ring is lost.
4. trans. To shoot (an arrow) so that it falls short or wide of the mark.
1545[implied in dribber below]. 1565Golding Ovid's Met. xiii. (1593) 295 Behold how hee..dribs his arrowes up and downe At birds. 1572Churchyard To Rdr. in J. Jones Bathes of Bath, At rouers they but shot theyr Shafts, and dribbed wyde a skore. 1592Lyly Galathea iii. iv, O Venus..well shalt thou know what it is to drib thine arrowes up and downe Diana's leyes.
Hence dribbed, ˈdribbing ppl. adjs.; also ˈdribber, one who dribs his arrows.
1545R. Ascham Toxoph. (Arb.) 94 So if a man be..neuer so wel taught in his youth to shote, yet if he giue it ouer, and not use to shote..he shal become of a fayre archer, a stark squyrter and dribber. 1581Sidney Astr. & Stella ii, Not at the first sight, nor yet with a dribbed shot Loue gaue the wound.
▪ II. drib, n. Sc. and dial.
[f. drib v., or perh. more immediately deduced from dribble, driblet, which appear much earlier.]
A drop, a petty or inconsiderable quantity; a driblet.
c1730Ramsay Ode fr. Horace, That mutchkin-stoup it hauds but dribs. a1745Swift On Gibbs' Ps. (T.), Do not, I pray thee, paper stain With rhymes retail'd in dribbs. 1819W. Tennant Papistry Storm'd (1827) 172 And gust our gabs wi' dribs o' wine. 1862Lincoln Let. to McClellan 25 May in Raymond Life (1864) 241 We are sending such regiments and dribs from here and Baltimore as we can spare to Harper's Ferry. 1875Sussex Gloss., Drib, a very small quantity of anything.
Restrict Sc. and dial. to sense a and add: b. Phr. (in or by) dribs and drabs, (in) small and intermittent sums or amounts. Cf. drab n.1 4. colloq. and dial.
1809E. Weeton Let. 17 Mar. in Jrnl. of Governess (1969) I. 158 Whether it be better to have a little [news] and often, or a great deal and seldom, I leave to your better judgment to determine... You may have it in dribs and drabs if you like it better. 1861,1888[see drab n.1 4]. 1897G. Bartram People of Clopton vii. 205 They on'y let he hev' it by dribs an' draabs. 1948‘H. Green’ Concluding 123 They entered by dribs and drabs, lazily, slack. 1959News Chron. 5 Oct. 3/3 I've still only got dribs and drabs of information. 1985L. Hudson Night Life vii. 77 We see an established poet lapsing for a period of a decade into depression, his work coming only in dribs and drabs. |