| 释义 |
makeshift|ˈmeɪkʃɪft|
[f. phr. to make shift (see shift n.).]
A. n.
†1. One who is given to making shifts; a shifty person, a rogue. Obs.
1565J. Halle Hist. Expost. B bb iij, Not longe after came thither a makeshifte, with two men wayghting on hym,..bragging that he was a profounde phisicien. 1573Tusser Husb. (1878) 43 At night if it shine, out trudgeth Hew make shift, with hooke and with line. 1598Barret Theor. Warres i. i. 7 The subtill make-shift, is preferred before the silent man. 1602F. Herring Anatomyes 23 The Colledge is now become the Common Inne of Make-shifts and Impostors. 1608Middleton Trick to catch Old one ii. i, [He] whom but last day he proclaimed rioter, penurious make-shift, despised brothel-master.
2. That with which one makes shift; a temporary substitute of an inferior kind. (Cf. B. 2.) Also transf., of a person.
Quot. 1848 may belong to sense 1.
1802–12Bentham Ration. Judic. Evid. (1827) V. 408 Jurisprudential law is the miserable makeshift of inexperienced ages. 1822Lamb Elia Ser. i. Roast Pig, The cottage was a sorry antediluvian make-shift of a building. 1848[see wire-puller]. 1850W. Irving Goldsmith xiii. 153 Goldsmith continued to consider literature a mere make-shift. 1873Burton Hist. Scot. I. i. 27 They hated patchwork and makeshifts. 1899Baring-Gould Bk. of West I. xiii. 230 The Maypole is a makeshift for an actual tree. 1912[see Gawd]. 1920H. Crane Let. 22 Dec. (1965) 50, I..hope that I have not been relinquished as one of Akron's temporary ‘make⁓shifts’ or ‘reliefs’. 1951E. Paul Springtime in Paris ix. 162 Dr. Thiouville..completed his studies under the De Gaulle régime and the first few Middle-of-the-Road makeshifts.
3. The action of making shift.
1870Daily News 27 Oct., There is..so much clever make⁓shift to be accomplished that [etc.].
B. attrib. or as adj.
†1. Of persons: Shifty, roguish. Obs.
1592Greene (title) Groatsworth of Witte: bovght with a million of Repentance: Describing the Folly of Youth, the falshood of Make-shift Flatterers.
2. a. With which one makes shift; serving as a temporary and inferior substitute.
1683Moxon Mech. Exerc., Printing x. ad init., A make⁓shift slovenly contrivance. 1757E. Griffith Lett. Henry & Frances (1767) III. 44, I readily grant, that these make⁓shift Pleasures fall short..of mutual Delight. 1809Malkin Gil Blas vii. v. ⁋5 After our make-shift dinner..I will treat you with a couple of bottles. 1876Geo. Eliot Dan. Der. i. iii, With..everything make-shift about us,..what was the use of my being anything?
b. transf. Characterized by makeshifts.
1824Lamb Elia Ser. ii. Capt. Jackson, Your honest aims at grandeur, your makeshift efforts of magnificence. 1854Mrs. Gaskell North & S. xvi, How will Margaret bear our makeshift poverty after the thorough comfort and luxury in Harley Street? 1887J. J. Hissey Holiday on Road 333 Patched and repaired in a happy makeshift way.
Hence ˈmake-shiftness, the condition of being a makeshift; ˈmake-shifty a., of the nature of or characterized by makeshift; whence ˈmake-ˌshiftiness.
1858Lady Canning in Hare Two Noble Lives (1893) II. 422 The hospitals at Allahabad are rather make-shifty. 1866Q. Rev. July 224 The make-shifty and hap-hazard looseness with which some 800,000 black semi-barbarians were..admitted to the full civil rights of English citizens. 1887Ruskin Præterita II. 267 Partly through laziness and make⁓shiftiness..I never opened the midmost wall, though it considerably fretted me. 1892Black & White 12 Mar. 346/1 He hated..the make-shiftness of poverty. |