| 释义 |
Hoover|ˈhuːvə(r)|
Also hoover.
a. (With capital initial.) The proprietary name of a make of vacuum cleaner (patented in 1927).
b. loosely. (With small initial.) Any vacuum cleaner. Hence as v. trans., to clean with a Hoover (or, by extension, any vacuum cleaner). Also intr.
1926–7Army & Navy Stores Catal. 115 (Advt.), A Hoovered room..is..free from dust. 1934Punch 10 Jan. 36/1 Her bodywork's smart and strikes the eye Clean-swept as though with a Hoover. 1934S. Beckett More Pricks than Kicks 67 He waddled out of the bar..into the lowly public..like a bit of dirt into a Hoover. 1939N. Streatfeild Luke 187, I was Hoovering my passage. 1940H. G. Wells All Aboard for Ararat iii. 91, I shall feel like a man trying to sell Hoover cleaners to an Arab encampment in a dust storm. 1944M. Sharp Cluny Brown x. 68 Are you the one who hoovers the east corridor? 1946M. Dickens Happy Prisoner ix. 185 I've been swept out of the kitchen, and dusted out of the dining-room, and Hoovered out of the drawing-room. 1955P. Wentworth Vanishing Point xi. 69 It was Miss Maxwell who hoovered the carpet and dusted all those innumerable ornaments. 1960P. Mortimer Saturday Lunch with Brownings 202 Louisa was vacuuming the sitting-room... ‘Do you mind moving, because I want to Hoover over there?’ 1960C. Wilson Ritual in Dark i. v. 101 The carpeting was a plain fawn colour, and looked as if it had only just been hoovered. 1971Engineer 11 Nov. 66/3 How many housewives Hoover the carpet with an Electrolux?
▸ hoover v. trans. To consume voraciously; to devour completely. Freq. with up or (occas.) in.
1970Times 2 Nov. 9/7 The populace..sit hoovering up the drivel poured out on television at peak viewing times. 1981D. J. Bellamy & T. J. Bellamy Bellamy's Backyard Safari 62 The picture is completed by the gut which has a mouth complete with an extendible proboscis which is used to latch onto the prey and hoover in its contents. 1984J. McInerney Bright Lights, Big City 42 ‘Where are we rolling?’ ‘Into the heart of the night. Wherever there are dances to be danced, drugs to be hoovered.’ 1986Daily Tel. 23 Dec. 13 Hillsdown has been hoovering up companies at the rate of about one a fortnight. 2003N. Slater Toast 84 Over the next few weeks Digestive Biscuit boy hoovered up egg-and-bacon flan, tomato flan, liver and cabbage, liver and mashed swede, [etc.]. |