| 释义 |
would-be, a. and n.|ˈwʊdbiː|
[The phrase would be (see will v.1 40) used attributively and absolutely.]
A. adj.
a. Of persons: That would be; wishing to be; posing as.
In the earliest examples used as a mock addition to a designation or title: cf. B.
1300Graystanes in Hist. Dunelm. Script. Tres (Surtees) 77 Eum [sc. Henry de Luceby] contempserunt, vocantes eum H. walde be Priur. 1642Sir F. Kynaston Leoline etc. 138 By the skill of Marquis would-be Iones, 'Tis found the smoakes salt did corrupt the stones.
1647Trapp Comm. Matt. v. 21. 286 Epictetus complained that there were many would be Philosophers, as far as a few good words would goe. 1691Rabshakeh Vapulans 2 The Wou'd-be-Wits, and wou'd-be-Wise, The witty Fool must have the foremost place. 1708Brit. Apollo No. 73. 2/2 The next a Proctor's Clerk, a Would-be Beau. 1750Student or Oxf. Misc. I. 23 None but Academical Pedants and would⁓be-wits. 1794Jefferson Writ. (1859) IV. 112 We shall see what the court lawyers..and would-be ambassadors will make of it. 1832Lytton Eugene A. iv. ii, They are not rascals—they are would-be men of the world. 1864Pusey Lect. Daniel ii. 91 Antiochus was a propagator of false religions, a would-be destroyer of the true. 1889Gretton Memory's Harkback 307 Napoleon I..actually bequeathed a legacy..to Cantillon, the would-be assassin of Wellington.
b. transf. Of things: Intended as.
a1839Praed Poems (1864) II. 54 The burnished plate That decks the would-be rustic gate. 1856C. M. Yonge Daisy Chain ii. xxvi, Speaking with a would-be tone of congratulation. 1869Trollope He Knew etc. xcii. (1878) 513 He had continued to speak with the same fluent would⁓be cynicism. 1901H. Sutcliffe B. Cunliffe v. 75 His usual stilted gait softened to a would-be airiness.
c. With following adj., forming a hyphened phrase.
1813Jane Austen Let. 11 Oct. (1952) 343 A large, ungenteel Woman, with self-satisfied & would-be elegant manners. 1826Galt Last of Lairds xxvii. 238 The would-be-genteel coxcombs of Calcutta. 1840T. Gordon tr. W. Menzel's Ger. Lit. II. 80 Books..are filled with Philistinism and would-be-wise morality. 1865A. Thomas On Guard II. 90 A sayer of would-be-sensible things. 1883R. Broughton Belinda i. iii, With a would-be-valedictory wave of the hand.
d. would-be-thought: wishing to be considered as.
1805T. Harral Scenes of Life II. 67 The wits, and would-be-thought wits, of the day. 1815M. Pilkington Celebrity II. 148 ‘Perhaps I might’, rejoined the would-be-thought cynic.
e. Used predicatively: mannered, pretentious. (App. restricted to the works of D. H. Lawrence.)
1922D. H. Lawrence Lett. (1932) 556 These drawings are so completely without irony, so crass, so strained and so would-be. 1928Ibid. 751 James Joyce bores me stiff—too terribly would-be and done-on-purpose, utterly without spontaneity or real life. 1932A. Huxley in Lett. D. H. Lawrence p. xvii, The symphony oppressed him; it was too big, too elaborate, too carefully and consciously worked out, too ‘would-be’—to use a characteristic Lawrencian expression. He was quite determined that none of his writings should be ‘would-be’. He allowed them to flower as they liked from the depths of his being.
B. n. One who fain would be (something specified or implied).
Sometimes used as a fictitious surname.
(a)1605B. Jonson Volpone Dram. Pers. (1607), Politique Would-bee, a Knight..Fine Mada. Would-bee, the Knights wife. 1706S. Centlivre Love at Venture i. i. 5 Enter a Servant. Ser. Sir, here is Mr. Wou'dbe to wait on you.
(b)1672Marvell Reh. Transp. i. 238 They are the Politick would-be's of the Clergy. c1730Ramsay To his Son vi, Yet, this let little would-be's know. 1732London Mag. I. 240 Of all the Fops in Nature, none are so ridiculously contemptible as the Wouldbees. 1781Cowper Conversat. 612 A man that would have foiled, at their own play, A dozen would-be's of the modern day. |