| 释义 |
▪ I. gamble, n.1 Chiefly colloq.|ˈgæmb(ə)l|
[f. gamble v.]
1. An act of gambling; a gambling transaction. Also in phr. on the gamble: engaged in a spell of gambling.
1879E. S. Bridges Round World in 6 Months 138 Many English come here..to get fresh air and indulge in a gamble. 1887Rider Haggard Jess ii, Her brute of a husband was always on the drink and gamble. 1890Saintsbury in New Rev. Feb. 141 The real point is the chance, the uncertainty, the gamble.
2. transf. Any transaction or pursuit involving risk and uncertainty.
1823in Cobbett Rur. Rides (1885) I. 289 This hop growing and dealing have always been a gamble. 1881Sat. Rev. 9 July 40/2 Politics, in fact, are ‘a big gamble’. 1897Westm. Gaz. 29 Apr. 4/2 Gold mines are necessarily a gamble.
▪ II. ˈgamble, n.2 Obs. exc. dial.
[var. of gambrel.]
1. = gambrel 2. Also attrib.
1703Lond. Gaz. No. 3970/4 Has had the Farcy on the near Leg behind..and has had a great Sore on that gamble Joynt. 1720Ibid. No. 5883/3 White Legs behind almost up to his Gambles. 1886Elworthy W. Somerset Word-bk., Gamble, the hock or elbow-joint of a hind-leg. Never applied to the entire leg, nor confined to horses. Properly the word applies to the strong tendon just above the joint.
2. = gambrel 1; also gamble-stick.
1876Surrey Gloss., Gamble-stick, the crooked piece of wood used to hang up a pig or other slaughtered animal.
▪ III. gamble, v.|ˈgæmb(ə)l|
[The vb. has not been found till about 1775–86; the apparent derivatives gambler, gambling ppl. a., occur earlier, and in the 18th c. were regarded as slang. The word is prob. a dialectal survival of an altered form of ME. gamene-n, OE. gamenian to sport, play, f. gamen game n.; cf. ‘gamel, to gamble, to gambol; gamler, a gambler’ (Northumb. Gloss.); cf. also the rare 16–17th c. gameling ppl. a. and vbl. n., which seem to imply a vb. *gamel. Continental Teut. words of similar meaning and form are MHG. gämeln to jest, sport, play (still in various Ger. dialects), Swiss Ger. gammeln to make merry, whence gammler buffoon, jester.]
1. a. intr. To play games of chance for money, esp. for unduly high stakes; to stake money (esp. to an extravagant amount) on some fortuitous event.
As the word is (at least in serious use) essentially a term of reproach, it would not ordinarily be applied to the action of playing for stakes of trifling amount, except by those who condemn playing for money altogether.
1775Ash, Gamble [printed Gamblet], to game, to cheat; to make a practice of gaming. 1786Burns Twa Dogs 154 At operas an' plays parading, Mortgaging, gambling, masquerading. 1818Todd, To Gamble, to play extravagantly for money. A word of contempt. 1838De Morgan Ess. Probab. 101 It should seem as if we were thus told either not to gamble at all, or else to play incessantly. 1873Ouida Pascarel I. 45, I saw everybody gamble. 1884W. C. Smith Kildrostan 78 When he won my hand, which brought much wealth, He promised ne'er to gamble while he lived.
fig.1850Carlyle Latter-d. Pamph. vi. (1872) 196 Gambling against the world for life or for death. 1876Geo. Eliot Dan. Der. iii. xxv, He was almost in danger of forgetting that he was merely gambling in argument.
b. slang in phr. you may gamble on that.
1886‘Artemus Ward’ In Washington, You ain't goin' to fool female Young America much. You may gamble on that. 1896Pall Mall Mag. 14 Sept., There will be trouble for some one. You can gamble on that.
2. a. trans. To stake, risk in gaming.
1885O. W. Holmes Jr. in Law. Q. Rev. Apr. 172 Tacitus says that the Germans would gamble their personal liberty and pay with their persons if they lost. 1922Joyce Ulysses 763 When do you ever see women rolling around drunk like they do or gambling every penny they have and losing it on horses. 1930Publishers' Weekly 8 Feb. 706 He would not have gambled his money upon them by adding them to his list.
b. To lose by gambling. Usu. with away or off.
a1808F. Ames Infl. Democr. iii. (1835) 108 Bankrupts and sots, who have gambled or slept away their estates. 1836W. Irving Astoria II. 290 They gamble away every thing they possess, even to their wives and children. 1848Thackeray Van. Fair lxiv, When she got her money she gambled; when she had gambled it she was put to shifts to live. 1865Lecky Ration. (1878) II. 236 Men who had gambled away their liberty. 1874‘H. Churton’ Toinette xii, Loyd probably traded her off, perhaps gambled her off, in some drunken spree. 1888F. Hume Mad. Midas i. i, He gambled away large sums at his club. |