| 释义 |
▪ I. freak, n.1|friːk|
[Not found before 16th c.; possibly introduced from dialects, and cognate with OE. frícian (Matt. xi. 17) to dance.]
1. A sudden causeless change or turn of the mind; a capricious humour, notion, whim, or vagary.
1563Mirr. Mag., Jane Shore ii, Fortunes frekes. 1590Spenser F.Q. i. iv. 50, I feare the fickle freakes..Of Fortune. 1632Marmion Holland's Leaguer ii. i, Her I'll make A stale, to take this courtier in a freak. 1661Cowley Disc. Govt. O. Cromwell Wks. 1710 II. 664 Now the Freak takes him and he makes seventy Peers of the Land at one clap. 1712Steele Spect. No. 427 ⁋2 Sometimes in a Freak [she] will instantly change her Habitation. 1812H. & J. Smith Rej. Addr. 79 Amid the freaks that modern fashion sanctions, It grieves me much to see live animals Brought on the stage. 1867M. E. Herbert Cradle L. vi. 158 Ibrahim Pasha, in a freak of tyrannical fury, turned every Mahometan out of the city. 1891E. W. Gosse Gossip Libr. v. 56 One of the grimmest freaks that ever entered into a pious mind.
2. The disposition of a mind subject to such humours; capriciousness.
1678R. L'Estrange Seneca's Mor. (1702) 54 It is the Freak of many People, they cannot do a good Office, but they are presently boasting of it. 1822Hazlitt Table-t. Ser. ii. xviii. 380 Several..have ruined their fortunes out of mere freak. 1848C. Brontë J. Eyre xiii, A decent quiescence under the freak of manner, gave me the advantage.
3. A capricious prank or trick, a caper.
Cf. the earlier synonym reaks.
1724Gay Quidnuncki's, Thus, as in giddy freaks he bounces, Crack goes the twig, and in he flounces! 1840Barham Ingol. Leg., Jackdaw, The priests, with awe, as such freaks they saw, Said: The Devil must be in that little Jackdaw. 1865Trollope Belton Est. i. 3 Expelled from Harrow for some boyish freak.
4. a. A product of irregular or sportive fancy.
1784Cowper Task v. 130 Thy most magnificent and mighty freak [an ice-palace], The wonder of the North. 1856Emerson Eng. Traits, Wealth Wks. (Bohn) II. 74 Strawberry Hill of Horace Walpole, Fonthill Abbey of Mr. Beckford, were freaks.
b. (More fully freak of nature, = lusus naturæ): A monstrosity, an abnormally developed individual of any species; in recent use (esp. U.S.), a living curiosity exhibited in a show.
1847A. M. Gilliam Trav. Mexico 230 Many were..the freaks of nature that I beheld in the singular formations of the rocks. 1883Daily News 11 Sept. 2/5 An association of..natural curiosities usually exhibited at booths..called the ‘Freaks' Union’, the word freaks being an abbreviation of the term ‘freaks of nature’ by which these monstrosities are described. 1891C. T. C. James Rom. Rigmarole 130 The two freaks were retired into private life for purposes of refreshment.
c. One who ‘freaks out’ (freak v. 3); a drug addict (see also quots.).
1967Atavar (Boston) 1–14 Sept. 17/1 The life expectancy of the average speed-freak..is less than five years. Ibid. Dec. 4/1 Some of us are beginning to wonder who are the ‘freaks’ in this world and who are the ‘straight’ people. 1969R. R. Lingeman Drugs from A to Z 79 Freak... One who prefers a certain kind of drug, as in acid freak or meth freak... By extension, one who is obsessed with a certain way of thinking as in ‘political freak’. 1970C. Major Dict. Afro-Amer. Slang 55 Freak, one who practices socially unaccepted forms of sexual love; strong believer in something. 1971Oz May 7/2 Its hills and valleys are full of hippies, and freaks, camping along the river beds. 1971It 9– 23 Sept. 5/5 Power freaks like Ted Heath and union leader Vic Feather. 1971Ink 19 Oct. 7/1 An ideological community of 25 freaks plus guru in Copenhagen. Ibid. 7/3 Far from there being any noticeable improvement in the quality of relationships as practised among freaks, I would say there has been a distinct deterioration compared even with the most miserable standards of the straight world.
d. With qualifying word or phrase: one who shows great enthusiasm for the activity, person, or thing specified, as health freak, train freak, etc.; an aficionado. Cf. buff n.2 6 b and fiend n. 4 c. colloq. (orig. U.S.).
1908Court of Appeals, State of N.Y. III. 455 He had a camera. Evidently from the evidence in this case he was one of your kodak freaks. 1946B. Ulanov Duke Ellington xix. 270 ‘I'm a train freak,’ Duke says. 1959L. Lipton Holy Barbarians i. 39 He looked more like one of those beachcomber Nature Boy health freaks than a real hipster. 1967, etc. [see sense 4 c above]. 1976Southern Even. Echo (Southampton) 18 Nov. 15/7, I'm not a Freud freak, but..you can only stay with them until they are school age. 1977J. D. MacDonald Condominium xxxvi. 354 It's just another one of these so-called scientific studies of doom from another one of the ecology freaks. 1986P. Booth Palm Beach vii. 124 Boy, are you exercise freaks into punishment.
5. Comb., as freak-storm; freak-doing adj.; also quasi-adj. to denote something abnormal or capriciously irregular; freak show, at a fair, etc.: a sideshow featuring freaks (sense 4 b).
1862R. H. Patterson Ess. Hist. & Art. 470 The freak-doing Aswins. 1887E. R. Pennell in Contemp. Rev. Mar. 400 note, What I should call penny peep, or rather freak, shows. 1898Daily News 17 Mar. 6/5 ‘The yellow kid’, a personification of ‘freak’ or sensational journalism. 1907Westm. Gaz. 26 Sept. 7/2 The boats which have been built for this race of recent years are freak boats pure and simple. 1907Daily Chron. 5 Oct. 4/4 Conditions in America seem particularly favourable to the propagation of freak religions. 1908Westm. Gaz. 7 Mar. 8/1 The production of freak fruits, such as white blackberries..and seedless oranges. 1928[see come v. 25 d]. 1939G. Greene Lawless Roads i. 30 A freak show in a little booth. 1951R. Campbell Light on Dark Horse x. 141 These Berghens take a delight in freak-flying. 1963Times 8 May 16/3 The freaker the hands before the goulash the more normal the distribution after the redeal. 1968A. Taylor Honour in Shallow Cup i. 8 They'd been having freak storms there.
Hence ˈfreakdom, the region or domain of caprice; ˈfreakery, freaks collectively; ˈfreakful a., freakish, capricious; ˈfreaksome a. = prec.
1820Keats Lamia i. 230 By some freakful chance. 1854Chamb. Jrnl. III. 175 The Puck of Fancy, that freaksome, tricksy wight. 1873–4A. J. Ellis in Trans. Philol. Soc. 15 Was it [‘scrumptious’]..a pure fancy of the moment, with nothing but absurdity and freakdom to generate it? 1876J. Weiss Wit, Hum. & Shaks. i. 5 What a wide range of Nature's curious freakery a forest has!
▸ orig. and chiefly U.S. a. colloq. (derogatory). A person regarded as strange or contemptible, esp. because of markedly unusual appearance or behaviour.
1895F. P. Dunne in B. C. Schaaf Mr. Dooley's Chicago (1977) iv. v. 165 Th' deluded ol 'freak..had me up all las' month rubbin' his jints with arnica f'r infammathry rhoomatism. 1906S. Ford Shorty McCabe 281 There's too many freaks around 42nd-st. 'to keep cases on all of 'em. 1943A. Rand Fountainhead ii. iii. 237 A single man comes to represent, not a lone freak, but the multitude of all men together. 1967‘M. T. Knight’ Terrible Ten 82 This guy's a freak... Let's get outta here. 1994Rolling Stone 2 June 46/3 People around here view us as freaks. They see us walking together in a mall and they think we're a bunch of hoodlums just looking for trouble.
b. slang (freq. derogatory).
a. A person who enjoys unorthodox sexual practices; a fetishist.
1923E. H. Paul Impromptu 333 It was understood that the ‘heavies’, being less in demand, had to entertain the rough men, the freaks, and those who were so drunk they were hard to handle. 1937B. L. Reitman Sister of Road (1975) 178 The big money is on the ‘queer’ guys. And what freaks some of them are. 1965D. A. Ward & G. G. Kassebaum Women's Prison iv. 99 It usually follows a set pattern unless you get with a freak and they're usually freaky about only one or two things. 1970C. Major Dict. Afro-Amer. Slang 55 Freak, one who practices socially unaccepted forms of sexual love. 1988St. Petersburg (Florida) Times (Nexis) 25 May 3 a, God, what a freak! Kinky! Here he is up there preaching for all this money, and when I see him, he's kinky and cheap, too. 1999Calgary Herald (Nexis) 18 Dec. o4 An image was painted in my mind of a ‘freak’, a cross-dressing pervert.
b. A homosexual; a gay man or a lesbian.
The emergence of this specific use from the more general sense 4a is reflected in quot. 1937 Additions b(a); its apparent reabsorption is similarly suggested by the later quots. below, which can plausibly be assigned to either sense.
[1896in J. N. Katz Gay/Lesbian Almanac (1983) 292 This sudden mannish passion, palpitating under a tea gown, makes things difficult for the..freak.] 1941G. Legman Lang. Homosexuality in G. W. Henry Sex Variants II. 1166 Freak, a homosexual. 1962H. Kane Killer's Kiss xxvii. 207 Duffy was no queen, no platinum-dyed freak, no screaming faggot. 1966‘Petronius’ N.Y. Unexpurgated 40 Most run-of-the-mill heteros [have] been run out by the freaks. 1975P. C. Harrison Death of Boogie Woogie in Callaloo (1985) No. 24. 347 McVowtee. Your lips must be chapped! (He grabs Sunny's face and attempts to smear chap-stick on his lips. Sunny resists and stands) Sunny. Uh-uh! I ain't gonna sit here and let you make some kind of freak outta me! 1990A. H. Vachss Blossom i. xi. 27 ‘He never loved me at all!’, the freak sobbed.
▸ U.S. slang (esp. in African-American usage). An attractive young woman or (rare) man. Also derogatory: a promiscuous or ‘easy’ woman.
1955Amer. Speech 30 302 ‘The chick is a real cool freak.’.. Freak chick here simply means a pretty girl. 1965C. Brown Manchild in Promised Land xi. 290, I got a freak up there. You get in bed with this chick one time, and I guarantee that you'll lose your mind. 1986‘Ice T’ Six in Morning (song) in B. Cross It's not about Salary (1993) 25 Posse'd to the corner where the fly girls chill, Threw some action at some freaks 'til one bitch got ill. 1992Face Feb. 47/1 They liked to be jocked by freaks, you know, hit on by good-looking guys. 2000Arkansas Democrat-Gaz. (Nexis) 19 Sept. b5 [He] told Johnson he had a ‘freak’ at his house Johnson could have sex with... He says there was no force, it was all consensual.
▪ II. freak, n.2|friːk|
[f. freak v.]
A fleck or streak of colour.
1870Lowell Study Wind. (1871) 215 These quaint freaks of russet [in an old book] tell of Montaigne.
▪ III. freak, v.|friːk|
[f. freak n.1; the word (in sense 1) seems to have been formed by Milton.]
1. trans. To fleck or streak whimsically or capriciously; to variegate. Usually in pa. pple.
1637Milton Lycidas 144 The pansy freaked with jet. 1726–46Thomson Winter 814 And dark embroun'd, Or beauteous freakt with many a mingled hue. 1834Beckford Italy I. 80 Collecting dianthi freaked with beautifully varied colours. 1880Swinburne Studies in Song 15 The very dawn was..freaked with fire.
fig.1803W. Taylor in Monthly Mag. XVI. 221 The anxious elaboration of a style freaked with allusions.
2. intr. To practise freaks; to sport, gambol, frolic.
1663[see freaking ppl. a.]. a1820J. R. Drake Culprit Fay xxvi. 1836 Then glad they left their covert lair, And freaked about in the midnight air.
3. to freak out (occas. without out): to undergo an intense emotional experience, to become stimulated, to rave, esp. under the influence of hallucinatory drugs. Also trans., to cause (a person) to be aroused or stimulated in such a way. (Also in more trivial uses.) So freaked-out a., affected thus; freaking-out vbl. n.
1965Village Voice (N.Y.) 2/1 (Advt.), Grand Opening!!! Freak with the Fugs!!! The East Side's Most Infinite Hallucination in Person. 1966Life 25 Mar. 33/4 When my husband and I want to take a trip together..I just put a little acid in the kids' orange juice..and let them spend the day freaking out in the woods. 1967Oxf. Mail 3 Mar. 4 ‘Freak out, baby,’ goes the latest rebel war whoop... Frank Zappa..answers: ‘On a personal level, freaking out is a process whereby an individual casts off outmoded and restricted standards of thinking, dress and social etiquette.’ 1967Atavar (Boston) 7–13 July 13/2 (heading) Freaked-out in the Federal Building. 1968It 1–14 Nov. 8/4 Suppose..that total freedom could be granted now, today. Have you thought of what it would mean? Freedom to freak-out, yes; freedom to do your thing, sure. 1969Gandalf's Garden iv. 9/1 He was the first guy I had ever met who used his music to influence people, to turn them on, or freak them out. 1969Daily Tel. 21 Nov. 4/7 Some ‘freaked-out’ teenagers cannot move, let alone sit up straight when they attend classes. 1970It 27 Feb.–13 Mar. 11/1 Aage leaps about and shouts at them and freaks them out. 1970Times 5 May 9/3 The full African look..complete with enormous freaked out ‘Hair’ wig. 1970Nature 23 May 704/1 One question asked the respondents how often they had seen other people ‘freak out’, that is, have intense, transient emotional upsets.
▪ IV. freak
var. form of freke, Obs., man. |