| 释义 |
kittle cattle orig. Sc.|ˈkɪt(ə)l kæt(ə)l|
[f. kittle a. + cattle n.]
Used to denote people or animals that are capricious, rash, or erratic in behaviour; also transf., objects, concepts, etc., that are difficult to use, sort out, or comprehend.
Initially in phr. (kings are) kittle cattle to shoe behind, an elaboration of kittle to shoe behind (see quot 1600 s.v. kittle a.).
1818Scott Hrt. Midl. in Tales My Landlord 2nd Ser. IV. i. 5 Kings are kittle cattle to shoe behind, as we say in the north. 1876Geo. Eliot Dan. Der. xxv, She is kittle cattle to shoe, I think. 1881H. Shanks Peasant Poets Scotl., & Musings 342 Now, women are (compared wi' men), More contumacious; and when Their ‘birse’ is up,—my certy! then They're kittle cattle. 1888Trans. Highland Soc. 197 Even as machines are easily deranged so sheep are ‘kittle cattle’; no more delicate animal breathes. 1900E. T. Fowler Farringdons i. 15 She knew a great portion of the Methodist hymn-book by heart, and pondered long over the interesting preface to that work, wondering much what ‘doggerel’ and ‘botches’ could be—she inclined to the supposition that the former were animals and the latter were diseases; but even her vivid imagination failed to form a satisfactory representation of such queer kittle-cattle as ‘feeble expletives’. 1926Fowler Mod. Eng. Usage 717/1 It is well known that and which & but which are kittle cattle, so well known that the more timid writers avoid the dangers associated with them. 1935Times Educ. Suppl. 28 Dec. p. iv/1 It helps to discount the general impression that, as a race, they [sc. lilies] are kittle-kattle. 1942F. Smythe Alpine Ways 14 The ‘he man’ mountaineer who scorns tourists as mere kittle kattle, the tourists who jeer at the mountaineer as mad, have yet to gain that fuller understanding which abhors intolerance. 1966Sunday Express 13 Mar. 16/7 Princesses in love..are at times Kittle Cattle. |