| 释义 |
whiffet U.S.|ˈhwɪfɪt|
Also whiffit, wiffet.
[? f. whiff n.1 + -et1.]
1. (Also whiffet dog.) A small dog.
1801Olio (Philad.) 41 (Thornton) Who heeds the Whiffit's bark, when tempests howl? 1848Ladies' Repository VIII. 315 The best protection to a house, with a family in it that can be named—that is, a little, barking, noisy, cowardly, whiffet dog. 1879J. Burroughs Locusts & Wild Honey 30 The king-bird will worry the hawk as a whiffet dog will worry a bear.
2. transf. An insignificant person; a whipper-snapper. colloq. (Cf. whifling.)
1839Congress. Globe Jan., App. 105/3 There was not a Whig whiffet in the country but could ask [etc.]. 1876Whitman Specimen Days 1 Sept., Writ. 1902 IV. 157 This gusty-temper'd little whiffet, man. 1883L. A. Lambert Notes on Ingersoll xxii. 200 We hold ourselves responsible to him, and to all the glib little whiffets of his shallow school.
⁋The sense ‘a little whiff or puff’ given in Webster 1864 is not authenticated. |