| 释义 |
hardball N. Amer.|ˈhɑːdbɔːl|
[f. hard a. + ball n.1; cf. softball 2 a.]
1. = base-ball.
a1883G. W. Bagby Sel. Misc. Writings (1885) II. 19 He must now learn to cut jackets, play hard-ball, choose partners for cat and chermany, be kept in. 1939in Webster Add. 1941Sun (Baltimore) 24 Apr. 15/2 He played softball in junior high, and hardball for an American Legion team. 1974Plain Dealer (Cleveland, Ohio) 19 Oct. 5-d/1 We both knew Eric Miller from our days at St. Ed. He had expressed an interest in athletics and we knew that he backed a AAA hardball team.
2. fig. Tough, uncompromising dealings or activity (esp. in political contexts); chiefly in phr. to play hardball. slang.
1973P. J. Buchanan in Black Panther 6 Oct. 17/3 There are things that are certainly utterly outrageous... Then, there is dirty tricks, then there is political hardball, then there is pranks. 1977Washington Post 6 Sept. b5/5 Washingtonians usually know better. They know that people play political hardball here. 1978Globe & Mail (Toronto) 21 Feb. 7/1 The House could be a dangerous place... No more days of gentle badinage between Tory Bill and his friend Stephen. From now on it's going to be hardball. 1983Fortune 18 Apr. 118/2 If anyone wants to play hardball, Cub can operate in the 5% to 6% range and still be profitable, because its costs are so lean. 1985New Yorker 15 Apr. 100/2 Word was leaked from the White House in mid-March that members of the President's party who did not support his programs should not expect reëlection help. Such ‘hardball’ is not new, but it is not Reagan's style.
Hence ˈhard-baller, one who ‘plays hardball’ or engages in aggressive, uncompromising activity; ˈhardball v. trans., to (attempt to) persuade or coerce in this way.
1976Time 27 Dec. 52/1 Grodin plays the honcho as a hard-baller of the sort that used to hang around the Nixon White House. 1983Washington Post 13 Oct. dc1 The manager has picked Frederick Dorsey, a deputy D.C. corporation counsel with a background in civil rights, to face hardballers C & P Telephone Co. in a series of high-stakes hearings next month. 1984Observer 15 July 7/5 She rebelled occasionally, hard-balling O'Neill into attaching to a Bill an Amendment that would help her District, by threatening to kill a million dollar pork-barrel destined for his. |