| 释义 |
▪ I. Whitehall1|ˈhwaɪthɔːl|
1. The name of a street in London, used to designate the government offices situated there, or the civil service in general.
1827Morning Post 24 Mar. 3/2 In consequence of that accommodation, an equal amount of Exchequer Bills before locked up at Whitehall are afterwards to be locked up in Threadneedle-street. 1850Daily News 13 Mar. 5/2 The infection of..‘Christian Socialism’ is spreading to Whitehall. 1910Times Educ. Suppl. 6 Sept. 13/2 The introductory remarks..breathe a very different spirit from that of earlier official utterances of Whitehall. 1946C. S. Forester Lord Hornblower ix. 79 Heaven only knew what Whitehall and Downing Street would say. 1958Radio Times 23 Feb. 6/1 This is a tense story of sea warfare... The mess-room talk is most authentic..and Mr. White is obviously familiar with his ‘Whitehall types’. 1977Listener 7 Apr. 442/1 British Leyland..is almost entirely a Whitehall creation.
2. Special Combs.: Whitehall farce, any of a series of bedroom farces produced at the Whitehall Theatre, London, esp. those presented between 1950 and 1967 by Brian Rix; Whitehall Warrior slang, a civil servant; an officer in the armed forces employed in administration rather than on active service.
1966N. Marsh Black Beech & Honeydew x. 233 My uncle..was like a Professor in a Whitehall farce. 1966Guardian 20 Aug. 4/4 Blackpool..fulfils a social need. Like a Whitehall farce, it dictates its own terms and makes general criticism futile. 1976M. Gilbert Night of Twelfth v. 42 The play [sc. Twelfth Night]..[is] a love story mixed up with a Whitehall farce.
1973K. Giles File on Death vii. 174 I'm Quarles, a battered old Whitehall Warrior. 1976W. White Long Silence vii. 57, I didn't want anybody to think I was a chairbound officer, a Whitehall Warrior. 1978P. O'Donnell Dragon's Claw v. 81 Roger was a Whitehall Warrior until he retired.
Hence Whitehaˈllese, jargon regarded as typical of the civil service; Whiteˈhallism, attitudes or personnel regarded as typical of the civil service.
1915Ld. Esher Let. 21 Oct. in M. Gilbert Winston S. Churchill (1972) III. Compan. ii. 1232 In the Navy..there seems to be a trifle too much of ‘Whitehallism’. 1940Manch. Guardian Weekly 15 Mar. 216 Shortage of paper may now prompt economy of speech, and if it sloughs away some of the pomposities of business English and Whitehallese, which is slightly more correct in its heavy Latinity but just as lacking in sense and suppleness, the war may be said to have done us a little good. 1958Times 15 Nov. 8/3 At the time he said the Government were snubbing Wales and there was no prospect of ‘Whitehallism’ ever understanding Welsh aspirations. 1975Economist 15 Feb. 115/2 In spite of long exposure to Whitehallese, she writes in English. He lapses far too often into gobbledygook. 1984Guardian 1 Jan. 4 Phrases that take two words to say what one used to—‘check out’, ‘meet with’, ‘consult with’ (although Mrs Thatcher may shortly ban the last one from Whitehallese).
▪ II. † Whiteˈhall2 U.S. Obs.
The name of a district of New York, used attrib. to designate a type of rowing-boat. So † Whiteˈhaller, one who uses a Whitehall boat.
1828J. F. Cooper Notions of Americans I. 40 The latter [sc. New York boatmen], it appears, are of a class of watermen, that are renowned in this country, under the name of Whitehallers. 1835C. J. Latrobe Rambler in N. Amer. i. 25 The light skilfully managed wherry of the Whitehaller. 1849H. Melville Redburn II. xxix. 289 The Whitehall boats were around us. 1890N. P. Langford Vigilante Days II. 129 To attempt the passage..in a whitehall boat would be madness. |