| 释义 |
▪ I. † fuss, n.1 Obs.
= fussock 1, fustilugs.
1667Dryden & Davenant Tempest iii. iii, This [his Bosen's Whistle]..is a Badge of my Sea-Office; my fair Fuss, thou dost not know it. 1675Cotton Burlesque on B. 113 That great ramping Fuss, thy Daughter. 1702Steele Funeral iii. (1734) 51 O' Sunday Morning at Church I curtsied to you; and look'd at a great Fuss in a glaring light dress next Pew.
▪ II. fuss, n.2|fʌs|
[Perh. echoic of the sound of something sputtering or bubbling, or expressive of the action of ‘puffing and blowing’. Cf. also fuss, fuzz (= fuzzball). The common view that the word is connected with fous a., ‘eager, ready,’ is baseless; the adj. is not found later than the 15th c., and has little affinity of sense with the n.]
1. a. A bustle or commotion out of proportion to the occasion; a needless or excessive display of concern about anything; ostentatious or officious activity. Phrases: † to keep a fuss with = the later to make a fuss about; to make a fuss of or over († with): to pamper; to treat with an excessive display of affection or attention.
1701Farquhar Sir H. Wildair iii. i, Ah! I hate these Congregation-women. There's such a fuss and such a clutter about their Devotion. 1726Swift To a Lady in Johnson Eng. Poets XLIII. 79 Come to use and application; Nor with senates keep a fuss. c1730Ld. Lansdowne Wild Boar's Def. Wks. 1732 I. 140 With your Humanity you keep a Fuss; But are in truth worse brutes than all of us. 1783F. Burney Diary Jan., I felt so fagged with the preceding day's fuss. 1806–7J. Beresford Miseries Hum. Life (1826) xi. 271 You have both been making a great fuss about nothing. 1814Jane Austen Mansf. Park III. xiv. 267, I thought little of his illness at first. I looked upon him as the sort of person to be made a fuss with..in any trifling disorder. 1840R. H. Dana Bef. Mast xxiii. 71 She got under weigh with very little fuss. 1850Lowell Lett. (1894) I. 175 It is only foolish little men that are fond of mysteries and fusses. 1879Dixon Brit. Cyprus vi. 58 They were to ask no leave, and make no fuss. 1888Bryce Amer. Commw. III. ci. 424 There is a good deal of fuss about trotting-matches. 1928Daily Mail 13 Aug. 19/2 He asked her if she were not going to let him make a fuss of her before he went. 1931E. O'Neill Mourning becomes Electra i. iii. 71 His mother was stern with him, while Marie, she made a fuss over him and petted him. a1953― Long Day's Journey (1956) i. 37 You like to get us worried so we'll make a fuss over you. Ibid. ii. ii. 78 You want to be petted and spoiled and made a fuss over.
b. fuss-and-feathers, bustle and display; hence fuss-and-featherdom.
1866Temple Bar May 198 Their [hen-women's] fuss and featherdom have..a different direction. 1891Wolseley in Pall Mall G. 23 Sept. 7/2 It was no fuss-and-feathers and gold-lace army.
2. A state of (more or less ludicrous) consternation or anxiety.
1705Vanbrugh Confed. iv. Wks. (Rtldg.) 431/1 Why, here's your Master in a most violent Fuss, and no mortal Soul can tell for what. 1746Hawley in Albemarle 50 Yrs. of my Life (1876) I. 114, I could not tell you..the fusse the battalions of Guards are in upon this sudden embarcation. 1813Lady Burghersh Lett. (1893) 74 Madame Legoux..had been in a fine fuss about us.
3. [f. the vb.] One who fusses.
1875Howells Foregone Concl. 98, I am a fuss, and I don't deny it.
4. Comb., as fuss-box, -budget, -pot, a person who fusses.
1901R. Meinertzhagen Army Diary 30 Apr. (1960) 22 Major Mainwaring..is..a grumpy old fuss-box. 1939D. L. Sayers In Teeth of Evidence 236 What an old fuss⁓box you are, darling.
1904Dialect Notes II. 397 Fuss⁓budget, a nervous, fidgety person. 1936M. Mitchell Gone with Wind xxviii. 476 Her husband was old fuss⁓budget Frank. 1966Punch 30 Nov. 823/2 The two Mrs. Oswalds are viable characters, the younger played very artfully by Sarah Miles and the elder, on its terms of chatterbox fussbudget, vividly impersonated by Bessie Love.
1921G. O'Donovan Vocations i. 16 You are a fuss⁓pot. First you won't and then you will. 1951J. B. Priestley Festival at Farbridge ii. ii. 249 In the woman's opinion, the gentleman was a fusspot but wonderfully free with his money. 1966M. R. D. Foot SOE in France iii. 50 Some were foolhardy, some were fusspots.
▪ III. fuss, v.|fʌs|
[f. prec. n.]
1. intr. To make a fuss; to be in a bustle; to busy oneself restlessly about trifles; to move fussily (about, up and down, etc.).
1792Elvina II. 132 The Thorntons were among the first, Sir Gilbert fussing about, with his large white wig and gouty legs, as happy as any of them. 1797Polwhele Old Eng. Gentl. 62 She fuss'd to form arrangements with the cook. 1852R. S. Surtees Sponge's Sp. Tour xv. 78 He had been fussing about it not long before..dusting the portrait of himself. 1859Blackw. Mag. Apr. 456/2 Forth would fuss Achmet, with a huge crowd of staff. 1871Dixon Tower IV. iv. 34 Sir John..fussed and fumed about the Court. 1876F. E. Trollope Charming Fellow I. xi. 143 His wife liked to be fussing about in kitchen and store-room. 1883J. Parker Tyne Ch. 11 But the more he was fussed over the more he infidelled. 1887T. A. Trollope What I remember I. xiv. 293, I remember the host fussing in and out of the room during the quarter of an hour before dinner. 1889The County vi. in Cornh. Mag. Feb., They may be fussed over as novelties.
transf.1847Lytton Lucretia 114 By the coal fire, where, through volumes of smoke, fussed and flickered a pretension to flame. 1862H. Marryat Year in Sweden I. 340 Little stream gondolas with onion-funnels, puffing and fussing like busy water-beetles in a microscope.
2. trans. To put into a fuss; to agitate, worry; to bother about trifles. Also to fuss up (? dial.): to flatter, treat with fussy politeness.
1816T. Moore Mem. (1853) II. 98 Safe arrived,—quite well, but more pulled about, fussed, and bustled than ever. 1820Clare Rural Life (ed. 3) 14 Since Hope's deluding tongue inclin'd me To fuss myself. 1821― Vill. Minstr. I. 157 Since he fuss'd me so up in the grove. 1876C. M. Yonge Womankind xxviii. 245 It is generally the safest way to take care to be in time ourselves, but to guard against fussing other people. 1885L. B. Walford Nan, etc. II. 163 The going in and out..always fusses me.
Hence fussed ppl. a., in a fuss; agitated, disconcerted; fussing vbl. n. and ppl. a. Also fuˈssation [see -ation], the action, habit, or practice of fussing; ˈfusser [see -er1], one who fusses.
1775F. Burney Let. Nov. in Early Diary, She dispelled all sort of ceremony, distance, or fussation. 1826Miss Mitford Village ii. (1863) 317 She was addicted to a fussing and fidgetty neatness. 1832Scott St. Ronan's Introd. 9 The character of the traveller, meddling, self-important, and what the ladies call fussing. 1847Bushnell Chr. Nurt. ii. i. (1861) 245 His obstinacy is but the fussing of his weakness. 1860C. M. Yonge Stokesley Secret v. (1880) 228 David is taking up his slate, and looking a little fussed because there is a scratch in the corner. 1869M. A. Barker Station Life N. Zealand xv. (1874) 108, I have finished all my little fussings about the house. 1884A. A. Putnam 10 Yrs. Police Judge xv. 161 Every witness, affiant, loafer, fusser, and teazer of this jurisdictional region. 1890Pall Mall G. 2 May 2/3 The Standard with its fellow fussers and fogies abroad sits down and waits the event. 1895World Christm. No. 61/2 That idiotic fussation..all the excitement, and all those people staring at her.
▸ fussed adj. chiefly Brit. interested, concerned, bothered (in negative contexts, indicating indifference or lack of enthusiasm).
1975Economist 15 Feb. 64/1 The Americans are not too fussed about who is invited to the preliminary meeting. 1995C. Bateman Divorcing Jack xxv. 214, I had my suitcase all packed and I wasn't one bit fussed whether I was going to heaven or hell or London, I felt that bad. 2005Independent 9 Apr. (Traveller mag.) 3/2 If you have booked a weekend away at a very low fare, and are not that fussed about whether you go to BIQ (the code for Biarritz) or B&Q (the do-it-yourself store), then accepting the ‘call’ is a sensible plan.
▪ IV. fuss, fuss-ball
see fuzz, fuzz-ball. |