| 释义 |
William|ˈwɪljəm|
1. A common masculine personal name, used in the names of certain species of pinks and other flowers: now only in sweet-william. † wild Williams, the Ragged Robin (Lychnis Flos-cuculi).
1597Gerarde Herbal ii. clxxv. 481 The Crow flower is called..wilde Williams, marsh Gilloflowers, and Cockowe Gilloflowers. 1650[W. Howe] Phytol. Brit. 10 Armerius sylvestris...Crowflower and Wild Williams. Armeria flore simplici, William with single flower in a Wood beyond Redding. 1785Martyn Lett. Bot. xix. (1794) 276 Ragged-Robin, Meadow-Pinks, Wild-Williams.
2. An obsolete Dutch coin (see quot. 1893).
1844T. B. Macaulay Let. 9 Oct. (1977) IV. 218 While he was changing me a gold William I got away from the old villain. 1893R. Bithell Counting-Ho. Dict. (rev. ed.) 317 William, a gold coin formerly used in Holland, and valued at 10 guilders. Its metallic value was about 16s. 2d. sterling.
3. slang. [With a pun on bill n.3]
a. An account for payment, a bill.
1859H. J. Byron Maid & Magpie ii. 18 When de farmers around are behind in their rent I does little Villiams, at sixty per shent. 1903Farmer & Henley Slang VII. 353/2 To meet sweet William, to meet a bill on presentation.
b. A dollar note. (See also quot. 1869.) U.S.
Sometimes without a capital initial.
1865Republican Banner (Nashville, Tenn.) 5 Oct. 3/1 Will. had to remember the Workhouse in his will to the tune of a ‘ten dollar William’. 1869Overland Monthly III. 128 $100 bills were there [sc. in Texas] called ‘Williams’, and $50 bills ‘Blue Williams’. 1887in Wentworth & Flexner Dict. Amer. Slang (1960) 580/1 [He] lost his five dollar William. 1927C. A. Siringo Riata & Spurs i. 10 Mr. Myers wrote me..to buy a suit of clothes with the twenty-dollar ‘william’.
4. Used attrib. to designate the style of architecture, furniture, etc., associated with the reign of monarchs of this name; esp. William and Mary (freq. hyphenated), with reference to William III and Mary, joint King and Queen of Great Britain, 1689–94; William IV, with reference to William IV, King of Great Britain, 1830–7.
1905Fenn & Wyllie Old Eng. Furnit. vii. 74 The low-backed armchair..was..subsequently displaced by the more dignified and far more comfortable high-backed kind known to us as the ‘Stuart’ and the ‘William and Mary’ chair. 1927Daily Tel. 29 Nov. 7/1 Jacobean and William and Mary chests. 1948D. Welch Jrnl. 31 Aug. (1952) 266 Our chairs were William and Mary with high caned backs. 1955‘W. Mole’ Hammersmith Maggot iii. 41 A fine set of William IV chairs. 1977New Scientist 3 Mar. 512/1 A William-and-Mary country house in the depths of Somerset. 1982‘J. Gash’ Firefly Gadroon i. 13 A blazing row over a William IV davenport desk.
¶ Wiliam pear: see Williams1. |