| 释义 |
▪ I. fife, n.|faɪf|
Forms: α. 6 fiphe, fyfe, 6– fife. β. 6–7 phi-, phyfe, -phe.
[First appears in 15th c.: it is uncertain whether it is directly a. HGer. pfeife (see pipe n.), or a corruption of F. fifre fife, fifer (15th c. in Littré), a. OHG. pfîfâri (mod.G. pfeifer) piper, fifer, f. pfîfan to pipe.]
1. Mus.
a. A small shrill-toned instrument of the flute kind, used chiefly to accompany the drum in military music.
1555W. Watreman Fardle Facions ii. xi. 248 Thei [Turkes] vse a dromme and a fiphe, to assemble their Bandes. 1577Fenton Gold. Epist. 319 Out of little and smal phyfes, come a voice cleare and shrill. 1710Philips Pastorals v. 52 In thee The rudeness of my rural fife I see. 1846Grote Greece i. viii. (1862) II. 212 Their step was regulated by the fife.
b. (See quot.)
1876Stainer & Barrett Dict. Mus. Terms, Fife, an organ stop. A piccolo, generally of two feet in length.
c. fife and drum: taken as typical instruments of martial music; often attrib. in lit. sense, and fig. = martial, militant.
1674Playford Skill Mus. Pref. 5 When he hears the sound of the Trumpet, the Fife and Drum. 1900Westm. Gaz. 14 Feb. 3/2 The ‘Captains Courageous’ of the House were by no means unanimous in his favour. The Under-Secretary for War had not many fife-and-drum supporters in their ranks. 1923B. Whitlock J. Hardin & Son i. v. 69 In the line there was a fife and drum corps. 1958Times 29 Dec. 9/4 As a curate at St. Giles-in-the-Fields he started a fife-and-drum band for boys.
2. The sound of this instrument; in quots. transf.
1627P. Fletcher Locusts ii. iv, And blasts with whistling fifes new rage inspire. 1810Scott Lady of L. i. xxxi, The lark's shrill fife may come..from the fallow.
3. One who plays the fife; a fifer.
1548Privy Council Acts (1890) II. 166 For one monthes wages..for iiij drummes and two fyfes, every at xls. 1598Barret Theor. Warres ii. i. 18 Instructing the Drummes and Phifes their seuerall soundes. 1625Markham Souldiers Accid. 15 The Phiphes (if there be more then one) the eldest shall march with the eldest Drumme. 1649Ann. Barber-Surgeons Lond. (1890) 406 Paid to the Drumme & Phiffe—12s. Mod. They sent the drums and fifes to drown his voice.
4. attrib., as fife-bird. Also, fife-major (Mil.), a non-commissioned officer who superintends the fifers of a regiment.
1854Whittier Lit. Rec. & Misc. 241 I heard a mellow gush of music from the brown-breasted fife-bird. 1802James Milit. Dict., Fife-major.
▪ II. fife, v.|faɪf|
[f. prec. n.]
a. intr. To play on a fife.
b. trans. To play (a tune) upon or as upon the fife.
1598Florio Worlde of Wordes 462/2 Zuffolare, to whistle, to pipe, to fife, to blow hard. 1837Longfellow Drift-Wood Prose Wks. 1886 I. 322 All blowing and drumming and fifing away like mad. 1887Stevenson Underwoods 17 Winds that in darkness fifed a tune.
Hence ˈfifing vbl. n., the action of the vb.
c1817Byron To T. Moore ii, Fifing and drumming..Oh Thomas Moore! 1851Ruskin Stones Ven. I. xxi. §xx, The fluting and fifeing expire, the drumming remains. |