| 释义 |
tom-tit, tomtit|ˈtɒmˈtɪt|
Also 8 Tom teet.
[See tit n.3 3.]
1. a. A common name of the Blue Titmouse (Parus cæruleus); also locally, of the Coal Titmouse (P. ater), the Great Tit, (P. major), and the American P. atricapillus; incorrectly of other small birds, as the Wren, and the Tree-creeper.
1709Steele Tatler No. 112 ⁋2 To spare the Life of a Tom-Tit. 1711Addison Spect. No. 5 ⁋7 The Singing Birds will be Personated by Tom-tits. 1796Morse Amer. Geog. I. 211 Tom Teet, Parus atricapillus. 1812Combe Picturesque xxii, I must breathe my dogs a-bit, And try my gun at some tom-tit. a1825Forby Voc. E. Anglia, Tom-tit,..by us it is applied to the wren.., tom-tit seems to belong indiscriminately to both sexes. 1909Athenæum 20 Mar. 347/1 Magee characterized somebody's religion as insufficient for a tomtit. 1965Jrnl. Lancs. Dial. Soc. Jan. 19 Great Tit... Tom Tit. Accrington. 1972Guardian 23 Feb. 12/2 An octogenarian farm worker..pointed out that, just as one's largest toe is the ‘tom toe’, so it followed naturally that the largest tit was the tom-tit.
b. transf. applied to a little man or boy.
1741Richardson Pamela (ed. 2) I. Introd., I have told you the History of this Tom-tit of a Prater. 1909Daily News 19 July 11 A veritable little tomtit of a man in his jerky little ways and lively good humour.
2. A small sailing boat.
1857A. W. Habersham My Last Cruise xvii. 333 Some of us also took the tomtit, (a boat smaller even than the dingy). 1925A. B. Armitage Cadet to Commodore xx. 278 Out with the ‘Tom-tits’ in the harbour on a breezy Saturday afternoon was another delightful sport.
3. Rhyming slang for ‘shit’. Freq. with the in fig. use: ‘the willies’; also, nonsense.
1943‘R. Llewellyn’ None but Lonely Heart xx. 116 ‘You're always doing it, you shower of tom tit, you.’ 1944L. Glassop We were Rats 67 ‘Break it down,’ said the corporal. ‘You'll give these blokes the tomtits before they get their first lot of C.B.’ 1967J. Gardner Madrigal i. iii. 54 You can cut the Tom Tit, sergeant. 1970C. Wood ‘Terrible Hard’, says Alice vii. 91 Perhaps 'e stopped for a tomtit. 1973P. A. Smith Barcoo Salute 14 What's the matter, got the tom tits? 1982L. Cody Bad Company xii. 80, I was just sitting there, trousers round me ankles... If I hadn't been doing it already, he'd 've given me the tom-tits. |