| 释义 |
may-be, maybe, adv., n., and a.|ˈmeɪbiː|
Also dial. mebbe, mebbies, etc. (see E.D.D.).
[Shortened from it may be: cf. may-fall, mayhap, and F. peut-être.]
A. adv. Possibly, perhaps. Sometimes used like a conj. with a dependent that (cf. F. peut-être que). Also phr. and I don't mean maybe: I am positive (colloq.).
a1425Cursor M. 17553 (Trin.) May be [Cott. mai fall] sum goost awey him ledde. 1599Massinger, etc. Old Law iii. ii, May-be, some fairy's child..Has pissed upon that side. 1661Glanvill Van. Dogm. 175 This, may be, was the reason some imagin'd Hell there. 1733Swift Apol. Wks. 1755 IV. i. 209 Impossible! it can't be me. Or may be I mistook the word. 1848Thackeray Lett. 28 July, Our Lord speaking quite simply to simple Syrian people, a child or two maybe at his knees. 1866G. W. Dasent Gisli 22 Maybe that others than Arnor utter this. 1871R. Ellis tr. Catullus lxii. 46 Maybe for all they chide, their hearts do inly desire thee. 1897Kipling Capt. Cour. vii. 147 Don't want nothin', 'less, mebbe, an anchor that'll hold. 1926Maines & Grant Wise-Crack Dict. 5/1 And I don't mean maybe, jazz form of putting one's self on oath. 1930Joyce Anna Livia Plurabelle 23 I'll make it worth your while. And I don't mean maybe. 1931E. Linklater Juan in Amer. v. v. 401 When a guy..tries to get fresh..a girl's justified in giving him the razz—and I don't mean maybe! 1933E. Caldwell God's Little Acre viii. 110 We've sunk a hole twenty feet since this morning, and I don't mean maybe, either. 1953Manch. Guardian Weekly 20 Aug. 7 Except maybe a guy had been there two years. 1968B. Foster Changing Eng. Lang. i. 30 Some years ago a song popular in this country bore the title ‘Maybe’, and on consulting the O.E.D. one finds this word described as archaic and dialectal! Yet by now it is in everyday use in Britain. 1968New Society 29 Aug. 305/1 The Oxford English Dictionary describes ‘maybe’ as archaic and dialectal. But within the last generation it has been re-instated in England, obviously as a result of its popularity in the American vocabulary, where ‘perhaps’ is a very rare bird. Yet all this time ‘maybe’ (or ‘mebbe’) has been thriving in northern England, Scotland and Ireland. 1975New Yorker 13 Jan. 36/1, I wanted to think maybe she was different now.
B. n. What may be; a possibility, possible contingency.
a1586Sidney Sonn. in Arcadia etc. (1629) 525 And thus might I for feare of may be, leaue The sweet pursuit of my desired prey. 1603N. Breton Post with a Mad Packet i. xlii, May be is a doubt, but what is must be regarded. 1615Day Festivals xii. 335 Without all Maybees, the Lord is never more gracious to his Servants. 1756Monitor No. 9. II. 9, I will not..be scared out of my senses by improbabilities and maybe's. 1892A. Birrell Res Judic. vi. 168 [He] objected to our carrying on a flirtation with mystic maybe's and calling it Religion.
Proverbs (punningly)1721Kelly Scot. Prov., Maybes are no aye honey-bees. 1738Swift Pol. Conversat. i. 19 May-bees don't fly now, Miss.
C. adj. Which are possibly to come.
1687Dryden Hind & P. iii. 294 Those may-be years thou hast to live. |