| 释义 |
lousy, a.|ˈlaʊzɪ|
Also 4–8 lowsy(e, (4 lousi, 5 lowse, -i), 6–7 lous-, lowsie, -ye, -zie, -zy, 8 lowsey.
[f. louse n. + -y.]
A. adj.
1. a. Full of lice, infested by lice.
1377Langl. P. Pl. B. v. 195 With an hode on his hed a lousi hatte aboue. 1486Bk. St. Albans B v, A medecyne for an hawke that is lowse. 1523Fitzherb. Husb. §117 There be horses that wyll be lowsy, and it cometh of pouertie, colde and yll kepynge. a1572Knox Hist. Ref. Wks. 1846 I. 74 Your cord and lowsie coit and sark. 1652Culpepper Eng. Physic. (1809) 134 Some authors say, the eating of them [figs] makes people lousy. 1653Walton Compl. Angler 130 If I catch a Trout in one Meadow, he shall be white and faint, and very like to be lowsie. 1677Johnson in Ray's Corr. (1848) 127 The sight of one of these [salmon] makes a fisher leap for joy, especially if his gills be lousy. 1697Phil. Trans. XIX. 394, I call him the Lousie Beetle, because when taken, he is generally found to be infested with small Vermin, like Lice. 1707Mortimer Husb. 253 The Sweet-bryar and Gooseberry that are only lousie in dry times or in very hot and dry places. 1710Addison Tatler No. 229 ⁋1 A very ordinary Microscope shows us, that a Louse is itself a very lousy Creature. 1890C. Patmore Let. 23 May in B. Champneys Mem. (1900) II. 136 These are both large fish, but they are habitually what the fishermen call ‘unclean’ and ‘lousy’; so they don't try to catch them. 1901R. Kipling Kim i. 26, I do not give to a lousy Tibetan.
†b. Characterized by the presence of lice. lousy disease, lousy evil = phthiriasis. Obs.
1519W. Horman Vulg. iii. 34 Antiochus, Sylla, and Herodde dyed in the lowsy euyll. 1538Elyot Dict., Pherecydes,..which dyed of the lousy sickenesse. 1579–80North Plutarch, Sylla (1595) 520 Acastus the sonne of Pelias died of the lowsie euill. 1774Goldsm. Nat. Hist. (1776) VII. 274 The Pthiriasis [sic], or lousy disease, though very little known at present, was frequent enough among the ancients. 1830Lindley Nat. Syst. Bot. 138 The lousy diseases to which people are very subject in those countries.
c. lousy grass, † (a) Stinking Hellebore, Helleborus fœtidus; (b) Spergula arvensis (1875 in Britten & Holland).
1597Gerarde Herbal ii. ccclxi. 827 The thirde and fourth [kinds of Black Hellebore] are named in the Germane toong Lowszkraut, that is Peduncularis, or Lowsie grasse. 1611Cotgr. s.v. Ellebore.
d. ‘Swarming’ with; abundantly supplied with (money, people, etc.); full of. Const. with. slang (orig. U.S.).
1843Spirit of Times 4 Mar. 7/3 He was lousy with money, and dared any man to face him. 1856Democratic State Jrnl. (Sacramento, Calif.) 6 Oct. 2/3 The bed of the river is perfectly ‘lousy’ with gold. 1864A. J. Munby Diary 15 July in D. Hudson Munby (1972) 199 Why Sir, these unfortunates are all over the place: the ground (he added with a gesture of disgust) is lousy with them. 1928S. Vines Humours Unreconciled i. 13 The Totsuka Club was..in the words of Mr. Podler, ‘just lousy with liars’. 1934V. M. Yeates Winged Victory xix. 150 And if the Dover Patrol was costly in life, were not shipping magnates lousy with shekels? 1936W. Holtby South Riding ii. i. 89 Leckton told me last month they threw in sixteen and a half couple of hounds and couldn't see a dog. Lost in thistles and willow herb—but lousy with foxes. 1956R. Braddon Nancy Wake xiii. 153 The town was lousy with Germans, she noted.
2. fig. Dirty, filthy, obscene. Also as a general term of abuse: Mean, scurvy, sorry, vile, contemptible. Also, inferior, poor, bad; ill; in low health or spirits.
c1386Chaucer Friar's T. 169 A lowsy Iogelour kan deceyue thee. 1532More Confut. Tindale Wks. (1557) 463/2 He loueth her with suche a lewde lowsye loue, as the lewde lousy louer in lechery loueth himself. 1568Grafton Chron. II. 613 His base birth and lowsy lynage. 1596Nashe Saffron Walden 34 It is no vpright conclusion to say whatsoever is long laboured, is lowsie and not worth a straw. 1663Dryden Wild Gallant i. i, And to discredit me before Strangers; for a lousie, paltry sum of Mony? 1708Brit. Apollo No. 38. 2/1 Wicked Rhimes..sung to lowsey Tunes. 1768Sterne Sent. Journ. (1775) I. 65 (Remise Door) You can never after..be anything in it [the church], said Pride, but a lousy prebendary. 1786Trials, etc. J. Shepperd, I might pick up the lousy guinea myself and be damned! 1822D. O'Connell Let. 22 May in Corr. (1972) II. 391 Perhaps to save some lousy postage you wrote across the letter. They stop all such letters in France. 1849A. Gordon Diary 12 July in W. E. Woodward Way Our People Lived (1944) viii. 268, I wish I could never hear the word lousy again. I am willing to bet that Tommy Plunkett uses it fifty times a day, but he is no worse than the others. It is ‘lousy’ this and ‘lousy’ that. The rain is lousy, the trail is lousy, the bacon is lousy, and Gus Thorpe, losing in the card game, has just said that he has had a lousy deal. 1893Stevenson Catriona 65 The lousiest, lowest, story to hand down to your namesakes in the future. 1922Joyce Ulysses 18 You come along with your lousy leer and your gloomy jesuit jibes. a1930D. H. Lawrence Last Poems (1932) 197 Oh great god of the machine What lousy archangels and angels you have to surround yourself with! 1932N. Mitford Christmas Pudding xiv. 220, I still think it's lousy of you not to have taken me last night. 1933‘N. West’ Miss Lonelyhearts (1949) 46, I felt swell before you came, and now I feel lousy. 1937L. Bromfield Rains Came i. xxxix. 170 Life is so short and so lousy. 1950‘S. Ransome’ Deadly Miss Ashley xv. 171 She felt too lousy to come to work. A foul cold, she said. 1959J. Braine Vodi xi. 153 A dirty rotten little whore, who couldn't wait six months for her husband, not six lousy months before she went off with another man. 1959R. Gant World in Jug 136 That sudden, nervous sweep which made him to my mind one of the lousiest drivers in Paris, city of lousy drivers. 1968K. Weatherly Roo Shooter 23 You're not a bad bastard, Hunter,..in spite of your lousy cooking. Ibid. 74 ‘I got fifty-two last night,’ he said... ‘I only got a lousy twelve,’ replied Hunter. 1973P. Moyes Curious Affair of Third Dog xi. 148 A brisk, pretty, coloured nurse came in... ‘Ah, you're awake... How do you feel?’ ‘Lousy,’ said Henry.
B. As adv. ‘Lousily’, extremely. Chiefly N. Amer.
In quot. 1971 a mere intensive.
1932Amer. Speech VII. 436 A man drunk is..‘lousy drunk’. 1936C. Day Lewis Friendly Tree xiv. 210 Well, not lousy-drunk. Just comfortable. 1971D. Heffron Nice Fire & Some Moonpennies iv. 33 But she didn't lousy come to school that day! What a blow. |