| 释义 |
long knife
[f. long a.1 + knife n.]
1. N. Amer. Hist. (Freq. pl., and with capital initials.) A name given by North American Indians to white settlers, esp. of Virginia, or white soldiers. In Canada, spec. a citizen of the United States.
1774J. R. Peyton Let. 10 Oct. in J. L. Peyton Adventures my Grandfather (1867) 143 The white troops, or ‘Long Knives’,..imagined no enemy was near. 1784D. Boon in J. Filson Discovery Kentucke 62 The savages now learned the superiority of the long knife, as they call the Virginians, by experience. 1827J. F. Cooper Prairie I. v. 135 If the Tetons lose their great chief by the hands of the Long-knives, old shall die as well as young! 1838A. Jameson Winter Stud. & Summer Rambles Canada III. 55 A distinguished Pottowottomie warrior..was..a good friend to the Long-knives, (The Americans). Ibid. 142 The Indians gave the name of Cheemokomaun (Long Knives, or Big Knives) to the Americans at the time they were defeated by General Wayne..in 1795, and suffered so severely from the sabres of the cavalry. 1908W. R. Nursey Story Isaac Brock xviii. 100 ‘My object,’ said Brock, addressing the Indians, ‘is to assist you to drive the ‘Long-knives’ from the frontier.’ 1959R. Gant World in Jug 38 Paleface, hear me. Do not send pony soldiers and long knives against my nation. 1959N. Sluman Blackfoot Crossing 33 Crowfoot says that the border—the medicine line—protects his people from the Long Knives. 1972J. Mosher Some would call it Adultery iii. xvi. 147 Brought General Terry and his ‘Long Knives’, as the Indians called U.S. Cavalry, ‘up across the border, Mounted Police or no’.
2. Phr. (night of) the long knives: a treacherous massacre (as, according to legend, of the Britons by Hengist in 472, or of Ernst Roehm and his associates by Hitler on 29–30 June 1934); hence used allusively of any similarly decisive or ruthless action.
The massacre of the Britons is described by Geoffrey of Monmouth in Historia Regum Britanniæ Bk. vi. xv.
1862Borrow Wild Wales II. xx. 226 Hengist had commanded..that..each Saxon should draw his long sax, or knife,..and should plunge it into the throat of his neighbour... This infernal carnage the Welsh have appropriately denominated the treachery of the long knives. 1891E. C. Brewer Historic Note-Bk. 531/2 Long Knives (The Plot or Treachery of the). This was a treacherous conference to which Geoffrey of Monmouth tells us the chief Britons were invited by Hengist at Ambresbury; others say by Vortigern. Beside each Briton a Saxon was seated, armed with a long knife; and, at a given signal, each Saxon slew the Briton seated by his side. Geoffrey tells us the signal was the utterance of these words: Nemet oure Saxas, and that the number massacred was 460. 1936R. Olden Hitler the Pawn xvi. 378 The consequence is massacre, ‘the night of the long knives’, a St. Bartholomew's night. 1937S. H. Roberts House Hitler Built ii. iii. 114 Such seem to have been the facts of this ‘Night of the Long Knives’ (the name given to it by Hitler and taken from one of the earliest marching songs of the Nazis). 1960‘W. Haggard’ Closed Circuit iii. 29 Many would die in any night of the long knives. 1961G. Thomas Keep in Plays of Year XXIV. 217 This is the night of the long knives and they all landed on Con. 1967W. R. Manchester Death of President i. i. 93 His popularity margin with state voters was..wider than those of Connally or Kennedy-Johnson... He could be fairly confident of surviving the long knives of Austin. 1967Economist 22 July 313/2 A government that can provide some degree of stability may be forgiven its day of the long knives—if the exercise is not repeated. 1968J. Bingham I love, I Kill iv. 44 There was not the ‘night of the long knives’ feeling you get when a commercial management has ten thousand smackers at stake. 1968Sunday Times 1 Dec. 11/5 The Long Knives flashed last week at Bush House. 1973Times 18 June 1/7 They both lost their jobs last April 30, the night of the long knives when a whole series of officials suddenly resigned. 1973R. Payne Life & Death of Hitler 274 The historical event known as the Night of the Long Knives took place in broad daylight. |