| 释义 |
little-ease Now Hist. or arch.
A place in which there is little ease for him who occupies it; a narrow place of confinement; spec. the name of a dungeon in the Tower of London, and of an ancient place of punishment for unruly apprentices at the Guildhall, London. Also, the pillory or stocks.
a1529Skelton Col. Cloute 1171 Lodge hym in Lytell Ease Fede hym with beanes and pease! 1548Elyot Dict. s.v. Arca, A streicte place in a prisone, called littell ease. 1550Latimer Last Serm. bef. Edw. VI (1562) 115 Was he not worthy to be cast in bocardo or lytle ease? 1608Middleton Family of Love iii. i. D 1 b, How dost thou brooke thy little ease, thy Trunk? [To a person who has been carried in a trunk.] a1623W. Pemble Wks. (1635) 548 As a prisoner of the Jayle, or one that is in little ease. 1663Dryden Wild Gallant i. ii, I sweat to think of that garret..why 'tis a kind of little ease, to cramp thy rebellious prentices in. 1688R. Holme Armoury iii. 312/1 There is another like place of punishment in our House of Correction in Chester..it is called the Little Ease, a place cut into a Rock, with a Grate Door before it. 1738Curiosity, or Gentl. & Lady's Libr. (1739) 54 Here ev'ry Creditor has Right to teize, And make his Home a real Little-Ease [Note. A Place of Punishment in Guildhall, London, for unruly 'Prentices]. 1752Carte Hist. Eng. III. 736 A loathsome filthy hole or dungeon in the Tower, called Little Ease. 1840H. Ainsworth Tower Lond. xiii, The walls of the cell, which was called the Little Ease, were so low, and so contrived, that the wretched inmate could neither stand, walk, sit, nor lie at full length within them. 1899F. T. Bullen Log Sea-waif 10 The pantry: a sort of little-ease in a corner of the cuddy.
transf.1638Featly Strict. Lyndom. ii. 58 In the Romish Purgatory all soules are in little-ease. 1681Whole Duty Nations 6 To grant nothing to this consideration, is rather to crowd men into a Little-ease in Religion, than to unite them. |