| 释义 |
▪ I. tinker, n.|ˈtɪŋkə(r)|
Forms: (3 tynekere), 4 tinkere, 4–5 tynkere, -are, 4–7 tynker, 5 tenker, 6 tinkar, tyncar, tinkard(e, tynkard, 6–7 tincker, 6– tinker.
[Origin uncertain; goes with tink v.2, either as source or derivative.
Often taken as agent-noun from tink v.1, in reference to the noise made in hammering metal: cf. Promp. Parv. c 1440, and Johnson ‘because in their work they make a tinkling noise’. This explanation is not in itself very plausible, and its support by the Sc. form tinkler, as an assumed parallel derivative of tinkle, is overthrown by the fact that tinkle vb. was app. not in Sc. use. Moreover Sc. tinkler and Eng. tynkere appear as trade names or surnames in 1175 and 1265 respectively, and in many instances before 1300, long before any trace of tink or tinkle has been found.]
1. a. A craftsman (usually itinerant) who mends pots, kettles, and other metal household utensils.
The low repute in which these, esp. the itinerant sort, were held in former times is shown by the expressions to swear like a tinker, a tinker's curse or damn, as drunk or as quarrelsome as a tinker, etc., and the use of ‘tinker’ as synonymous with ‘vagrant’, ‘gipsy’ (see b).
c1265in 6th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm. 578/2 (Corporation of Wallingford) [The lowest assessment is that of] Editha le Tynekere [at 2 pence]. 1362Langl. P. Pl. A. v. 160 Tomkyn þe Tinkere [1393 C. vii. 364 tynkere] and tweyne of his knaues. 1377Ibid. B. Prol. 220 Taillours and tynkeres & tolleres in marketes. 14..[see tink v.2]. c1440Promp. Parv. 494/2 Tynkare,..tintinarius; et capit nomen a sono artis, ut tintinabulum, sus, et multa alia, per onomotopeiam. c1510Barclay Mirr. Gd. Manners (1570) C ij, What should a hardie knight be felowe to a knaue, Or with a trifling tinkarde a clarke companion. 1566Eng. Ch. Furniture (Peacock) 33 One crysmatorie sold to a tincker. 1573–80Baret Alv. T 265 A Tincker, or tinkeler, sarctor aerarius. 1590Shakes. Mids. N. i. ii. 63. 1597 Shuttleworths' Acc. (Chetham Soc.) 108 The tynkard for mendynge of mylkinge vessells vijd. 1608Dekker 2nd Pt. Honest Wh. Wks. 1873 II. 149 He..swore like a dozen of drunken Tinkers. 1611Cotgr., Il iure comme vn Abbé [etc.], [he swears] like a Tinker, say we. 1674Warrant for Arrest (Westm. Gaz. 16 Mar. 1904, 5/1), One John Bunnyon of yor said Towne Tynker hath divers times within one Month last past..preached or teached at a Conventicle Meeteing or assembly under color or pretence of exercise of Religion. 1717Prior Alma iii. 577 And, for the metal, The coin may mend a tinker's kettle. 1832Babbage Econ. Manuf. i. 10 Worn-out saucepans and tin ware..beyond the reach of the tinker's art. 1854Macaulay Biog., Bunyan (1867) 27 The tinkers then formed a hereditary caste.
b. In Scotland and north of Ireland, the ordinary name for a gipsy: see tinkler1. Also, applied to itinerant beggars, traders, and performers generally; † a vagabond, tramp, or reputed thief (obs.).
The chief ostensible business of travelling gipsies in Scotland used to be the sale or mending of pots, pans, kettles, and metal-ware generally; hence tinkers, or rather tinklers, was their ordinary designation.
1561J. Awdelay Frat. Vacab. (1869) 5 A Tinkard leaueth his bag a sweating at the Alehouse..and..goeth abrode a begging. 1597Act 39 Eliz. c. 4 §2 All Juglers Tynkers Pedlers and Petty Chapmen wandring abroade. 1609R. Armin Maids of More-Cl. C iv, Lady. Is this the tinker you talke on? Hum. I madame of Twitnam, I haue seene him licke out burning fire brands with's tongue, drinke two pense from the bottome of a full pottle of ale [etc.]. 1801Strutt Sports & Past. iii. v. §29 Another itinerant, who seems in some degree to have rivalled the lower classes of the jugglers, was the tinker. 1806Gazetteer Scotl. (ed. 2) 615/2 Yetholm... This town has been long inhabited by tinkers or gypsies. 1896Kath. Tynan in Westm. Gaz. 14 Nov. 1/3 The ‘tinkers’ are the gipsies of the Irish country-side... Tinkering is their ostensible trade, but they are supposed not to be particular about meum and tuum. They are a wild lawless set, and ‘tinker’ has come to be an abusive term in Ireland from its association with them.
c. A clumsy or inefficient mender; a botcher; also fig. In U.S. also applied to a ‘jack-of-all-trades’ (Cent. Dict.).
1644–7[implied in tinkerwise below]. a1704T. Brown Praise Pov. Wks. 1730 I. 89 To cure one hole, like a true tinker, he here makes two. 1905Westm. Gaz. 13 Oct. 3/1 Not so, however, the new Secretary of State proved himself, but a ‘tinker’ like the rest.
d. not to care, be worth, (etc.), a tinker's curse, cuss, or damn, (ellipt.) a tinker's, an intensification of the earlier ‘not to care, or be worth, a curse or damn’ (see curse n. 2 ⁋, damn n. 2), with reference to the reputed addiction of tinkers to profane swearing: see 1. Cf. also quot. 1884, in which ‘not to care a straw’ is similarly intensified. (An ingenious but baseless conjecture suggesting another origin appears in quot. 1877.)
[1824Mactaggart Sir Balderdash v. in Gallovid. Encycl. s.v. Balderdash, A tinkler's curse she did na care What she did think or say.] 1839Thoreau Jrnl. 25 Apr. in Writings (1906) VII. 78 'Tis true they are not worth a ‘tinker's damn’. 1865[see cuss n. 1]. [ 1877Knight Dict. Mech., Tinker's-dam, a wall of dough raised around a place which a plumber desires to flood with a coat of solder. The material can be but once used; being consequently thrown away as worthless, it has passed into a proverb, usually involving the wrong spelling of the otherwise innocent word ‘dam’.] 1884St. James' Gaz. 24 Apr. 12/1, I don't care two tinkers' straws if you do. 1891Kipling Light that Failed vii. 137 The real world doesn't care a tinker's—doesn't care a bit. a1894Stevenson St. Ives xxv, I care not a Tinker's Damn for his ascension. 1907Westm. Gaz. 28 Oct. 2/3 ‘A tinker's curse’, as used in the two new plays ‘Irene Wycherley’ and ‘The Barrier’. Ibid., The suggestion that the phrase really refers to a ‘tinker's dam’..does credit to the speculative person who earliest associated it with the familiar old saying. 1947[see hoot n.2]. 1973Jewish Chron. 2 Feb. 19/3 It doesn't matter a tinker's cuss whether you amend the constitution to call the chairman president. 1983J. Symons Name of Annabel Lee ii. viii. 139, I don't give a tinker's, if you'll forgive the old fashioned way of putting it, who killed Ira Wolfdale.
e. A rascal, a persistently naughty child. As a term of mild contempt, usu. familiarly or playfully. Cf. beggar n. 6.
1925R. Rees Lake of Enchantment 50 I'll soon settle the young tinker if he's up to them tricks. 1953K. Tennant Joyful Condemned xiv. 124 She's a little tinker... Even you couldn't do anything with her. 1960J. Stroud Shorn Lamb xxiii. 247 I'm not so sure about Clement, he's a bit of a tinker at the moment. 1971G. Sims Deadhand ii. viii. 141 Did the boys scare you? I expect they did. The tinkers!
2. [f. tinker v.] An act or bout of tinkering; a stroke of tinker's work; fig. a bungling or unskilful attempt at mending something.
1857Hughes Tom Brown i. i, They must..spend their time and money in having a tinker at it.
3. Local name for various fishes, birds, etc.
a. The skate.
b. The stickleback.
c. U.S. A small or young mackerel; also, the chub-mackerel (Cent. Dict.).
d. ‘The silversides, a fish’ (ibid.).
e. The razor-billed auk. Newfoundland and Labrador.
f. The guillemot: = tinkershere.
g. ‘A kind of seal. Newfoundland’ (Cent. Dict.).
1771G. Cartwright Jrnl. 1 June (1792) I. 128 They killed a duck and a tinker. 1836Yarrell Brit. Fishes II. 421 The Skate. Blue Skate, and Grey Skate, Scotland. Tinker, Lyme Regis. 1856E. Newman in Zoologist XIV. 5125 We have in the ditches round London myriads of a very minute fresh-water fish, known to every boy..by the name of ‘tinker’. Ibid., The Tinker or 9-spined Stickleback (Gasterosteus lævis). 1856Atwood in Goode Fisheries (1884) 298 The tinkers, two years old... The mackerel..are denominated as follows: Large ones, second size, tinkers, and blinks. 1861Coues in Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philad. 251 It [the razor-billed auk] is known..to all fishermen and eggers..by the singular name of ‘Tinker’. 1886Sci. Amer. 5 June 352/3 Young mackerel or ‘tinkers’. 1896Newton Dict. Birds, Tinker, or Tinkershire, one of the many names of the Guillemot.
4. Ordnance. Name for a small mortar fixed on the end of a staff, and fired by a trigger and lanyard. U.S.
1877in Knight Dict. Mech.
5. attrib. and Comb., as tinker-like adj. and adv., tinker-preacher, tinker-tool; tinker-bird, any of several African birds having a call like repetitive hammering, esp. a barbet of the genus Pogoniulus; tinker mackerel = sense 3 c; Tinkertoy orig. and chiefly U.S., the proprietary name of a type of child's construction set; a toy made of this; also fig.
a1884T. Ayres in R. B. Sharpe Layard's Birds S. Afr. (1884) 175 The note of this curious little bird so much resembles the tapping of a hammer on an anvil (having that peculiar metallic ring) that it is called in Natal the *tinker bird. 1960G. Durrell Zoo in my Luggage 12 A tinker-bird was giving its monotonous cry, toink..toink..toink.., like someone beating forever on a tiny anvil.
1705Hickeringill Priest-cr. ii. viii. 90 Lest we make *Tinker-like Work, like that of the Presbyterian-Directory, mend one hole, and make two. 1753T. Cibber Let. to Warburton 53 This unmerciful Editor, who, Tinker-like, makes many Holes for one he mends.
1888Goode Amer. Fishes 179 A considerable school of these fish..were taken in company with the *Tinker Mackerel.
1900Westm. Gaz. 26 May 8/1 Bedford..so intimately associated with the *tinker-preacher's life and work.
1857Borrow Romany Rye xix. 118 *Tinker-tools.
1914Official Gaz. (U.S. Patent Office) 3 Feb. 283/2 Charles H. Pajeau, Chicago, Ill. Filed June 27, 1913. *Tinkertoy. Particular description of goods.—Games, Toys, and Children's Building-Blocks. Claims use since June 12, 1913. 1915Trade Marks Jrnl. 22 Dec. 1279 Tinkertoy... Toys. Charles Hamilton Pajeau, McCormick Building, 332, South Michigan Avenue, Chicago, County of Cook, State of Illinois, United States of America; manufacturers. 1918Sears, Roebuck Catal. Fall 829/1 Tinker Toy is the Wonder Builder. 1938Harper's Mag. Dec. 72 At the Tinkertoy factory in Evanston, Illinois, I was shown a Japanese imitation of the construction sets faithful even to the trademark drawing and two typographical errors in the instruction sheet. 1972Newsweek 19 June 23/3 McGovern will go into the campaign against Nixon with those Tinkertoy proposals of his.
Hence ˈtinkerdom, a realm or domain of tinkers; the condition or practice of a tinker; ˈtinkerwise adv., in the manner of a tinker; ˈtinkery, the business of a tinker (in quot. attrib.).
1630Tinker of Turvey 12 A budget fastened with a thong,..wherein are All his tooles and tinkery ware. 1644–7Cleveland Char. Lond. Diurn. 8 What did this Parliament ever go about to reforme, but Tinkerwise, in mending one hole they made three? 1834Carlyle Let. 27 June, in Life (1882) II. 439 His [Hunt's] house excels all you have ever read of—a poetical Tinkerdom, without parallel even in literature. Ibid. 440 Yet the noble Hunt receives you in his Tinkerdom in the spirit of a king. 1887Scott. Leader 27 Oct. 7 Cis-pontine prejudices fed by poultry-larceny and tinkerdom.
▪ II. tinker, v.|ˈtɪŋkə(r)|
[f. prec. n.]
In all senses usually depreciative.
1. a. intr. To work as a tinker; to mend metal utensils (and hence gen. any material objects), esp. in a clumsy, bungling, or imperfect way.
1592–1857 [see tinkering vbl. n. and ppl. a.].
b. fig. To work at something (immaterial) clumsily or imperfectly, esp. in the way of attempted repair or improvement; also more vaguely, to occupy oneself about something in a trifling or aimless way; to trifle, potter. Const. at, with.
1658W. Gurnall Chr. in Arm. verse 14. xiii. (1669) 53/1 He that will be tinkering with his own heart, and not seek out to Heaven for help, will in the end where he mends one hole, he'll make two worse. 1856Kane Arct. Expl. II. xiii. 134 When in-doors and at rest, tinkering over their ivory harness-rings. 1880McCarthy Own Times IV. lviii. 258 The public were tired of government which merely tinkered at legislation. 1894Jessopp Random Roaming Pref. 5 A work of art does not admit of being tinkered at indefinitely. 1903G. B. Shaw Man & Superman 193 Parliaments and synods may tinker as much as they please with their codes and creeds. 1936Discovery Sept. 273/2 When the harbour is reached he will be at liberty to tinker with it [sc. a boat] to his heart's content. 1955Times 2 May 13/7 Nobody is prepared to tinker with a social structure that has withstood every kind of outside pressure. 1977J. L. Houlden Patterns of Faith iii. 39 Matthew often ‘tinkers’ with Mark's work as he received it.
2. trans. To mend as a tinker; to repair or put into shape in an imperfect or makeshift way; to patch up.
a. material objects; also, human beings (in reference to medical or surgical treatment).
1769J. Wedgwood Let. 23 Feb. (1965) 71, I have settled a plan..to Tinker all the black Vases that are crooked. 1814Jefferson Writ. (1830) IV. 240 However we may tinker them [our machines] up for a while, all will at length surcease motion. 1835F. B. Head in Smiles Mem. J. Murray (1891) II. xxxi. 362 The waters will tinker you up in a most extraordinary manner. 1851Mayhew Lond. Labour I. 325/1 If the old article were of good quality, it was polished and tinkered up for sale in the Saturday evening street-markets, and often ‘went off well’. 1885S. O. Jewett in Harper's Mag. Jan. 209/2 She tinkered the rickety bee⁓hives. 1892C. T. Dent Mountaineer. ii. 68 An axe that does not come out right at first can rarely be tinkered into a good one by alterations.
b. fig. (immaterial things).
1753[see tinkering vbl. n.]. 1768H. Walpole Hist. Doubts Pref. 6 Chronology and astronomy are forced to tinker up and reconcile, as well as they can, those uncertainties [of ancient history]. 1768― Let. to Gray 18 Feb., I am criticised for the expression tinker up in the preface... I think such a low expression, placed to ridicule an absurd instance of wise folly, very forcible. 1866Bright Sp. Reform 20 Nov. (1876) 388 The Tory party refused even to have it tinkered. 1879McCarthy Own Times II. xxv. 257 Little plans of adjustment were tinkered up and tried. 1887Lowell Democr. 38 Men are prone to be tinkering the work of their own hands.
c. Pugilistic slang. To batter, maul.
1826Sporting Mag. XVIII. 253 Tom completely tinkered his antagonist's upper-crust.
Hence ˈtinkered |-kəd| ppl. a.; also ˈtinkerer, one who tinkers or works at mending something in a clumsy or ineffective way.
1862Lytton Str. Story xx, I clamped and soldered dogma to dogma in the links of my *tinkered logic. 1867Froude Short Stud. I. 40 The reconciliation..is no tinkered-up truce, or convenient Interim. 1906Athenæum 28 Apr. 505/3 He reprints Hayley's tinkered version..instead of the editio princeps in John Duncombe's ‘Works of Horace in English Verse’.
1894W. H. Hotchkiss in Review of Rev. June 683/1 An examination of the checks on the charter *tinkerer in other constitutions. |