| 释义 |
hireling, n. and a.|ˈhaɪəlɪŋ|
[OE. hýrling (rare), f. hýr hire + -ling. Not known in ME., and app. formed anew in 16th c.]
A. n.
1. One who serves for hire or wages; a hired servant; a mercenary (soldier). (Now usually somewhat contemptuous: cf. 2.)
c1000Ags. Gosp. Mark i. 20 Hi heora fæder zebedeo on scipe forleton mid hyrlingum [c 1160 Hatton G. hyrlingen]. 1535Coverdale Tobit v. 11 Axest thou after the kynred of an hyrelinge? 1547J. Harrison Exhort. Scottes G j b, To bee as common hirelynges to a forrein nacion. 1582N. T. (Rhem.) John x. 13 The hireling fleeth because he is a hireling [Wyclif hirid hyne; Tindale heyred servaunt]. 1632Lithgow Trav. ix. 380, I dispatched my Dragoman, and the other Barbarian hireling. 1734tr. Rollin's Anc. Hist., The loss he had sustained by the robbery of his hireling. 1849Macaulay Hist. Eng. i. (1880) I. 57 Hirelings whom want and idleness had induced to enlist.
b. A hired horse. nonce-use.
1893Sir G. Chesney Lesters III. ii. xxi. 23 Lionel on his hireling was the only one up with the hounds at the last.
2. One who makes reward or material remuneration the motive of his actions; a mercenary. (Opprobrious.)
1574tr. Marlorat's Apocalips 32 Least in sted of faithfull shepherds, they set hyrelings or rather wolues ouer the flocke of Christe. 1605Bacon Adv. Learn. i. ii. §5 As an hireling, that loves the work for the wages. 1667Milton P.L. iv. 193 So since into his Church lewd Hirelings climbe. 1721Pope Ep. to Earl of Oxford 36 No hireling she, no prostitute to praise. 1821Byron Sardan. ii. i, Baser Hirelings, who live by lies on good men's lives. 1849Macaulay Hist. Eng. iv. I. 456 James..had now, in becoming King of England, become also a hireling and vassal of Lewis.
B. adj. Characteristic of or pertaining to a hireling; serving for hire or wages; to be had for hire; mercenary. (Usually opprobrious.)
1587Golding De Mornay xxxii. 510 What find we in al the writings of the Heathen but a Hierling vertue? 1614Raleigh Hist. World i. ix. §1 (R.) The factious and hireling historians of all ages. 1681Dryden Abs. & Achit. 922 The plot by hireling witnesses improv'd. 1720Lett. fr. Lond. Jrnl. (1721) 47 Here are also hireling Chairs. 1738Johnson London 213 Some hireling senators. 1843Macaulay Ivry iv, With all the hireling chivalry of Guelders and Almayne. 1894Law Times XCVII. 384/1 [To] earn for itself the name of a profession of hireling subornees of perjury.
Hence ˈhirelingship, the condition of a hireling.
1827Pollok Let. in Life (1841) 357 Wherever you send him during the above specified hirelingship. |