| 释义 |
Mayfair|ˈmeɪfɛə(r)|
[May n.3 + fair n.1]
a. A fair held in May, esp. that held annually from the 17th century until the end of the 18th century in Brook fields near Hyde Park Corner.
b. The district of London, very fashionable since the 19th century, between Oxford Street and Piccadilly, occupying the site of the old fairground. Also as quasi-adj.
1701B. Fairfax in Tatler (1786) I. Notes 418, I wish you had been at May-fair, where the rope-dancing would have recompensed your labour. 1709Tatler 24–26 May, The Crowd of the Audience are fitter for Representations at May-fair, than a Theatre-Royal. 1748H. Walpole Let. 3 Sept. (1903) II. 336 A chosen committee waited on the faithful pair to the minister of May-fair. 1754Connoisseur 17 Oct. 227 Catalogue of Males and Females to be disposed of in Marriage to the Best Bidder, at Mr. Keith's Repository in May Fair. 1848Thackeray Van. Fair li. 453 Yesterday, Colonel and Mrs. Crawley entertained a select party at dinner at their house in May Fair. 1874H. C. Pennell (title) The Muses of Mayfair: selections from vers de société of the nineteenth century. 1933J. Buchan Prince of Captivity ii. i. 146 Clothes slightly astray from the conventions of Mayfair. 1953A. Christie Pocket Full of Rye i. 8 Miss Grosvenor..wailed in a voice whose accent was noticeably less Mayfair than usual.
c. attrib. and Comb.
1752H. Walpole Let. 27 Feb. (1903) III. 85 They were married with a ring of the bed-curtain..at Mayfair chapel. 1843Carlyle Past & Pr. iii. ix. 252 Patent-Digester, Spinning-Mule, Mayfair Clothes-Horse. 1866M. Mackintosh Stage Reminisc. vi. 74 So elegant and comfortable that even luxurious west-enders might have fancied themselves at home in their own May-Fair drawing-rooms. 1940N. Marsh Surfeit of Lampreys (1941) ii. 31 The twins were saying..that..the only thing..was for them to turn crooks and be another lot of Mayfair boys. 1943I. Brown Just Another Word 24 ‘She got terribly akimbo’..a species of Mayfair slang for what was earlier called ‘high horse’. 1957R. W. Zandvoort Handbk. Eng. Gram. v. ii. 225 It's such a bore, don't you know. In the..example (which really represents ‘Mayfair’ English) the tag practically ceases to be a question. 1962J. D. Salinger Franny & Zooey 155 He was still for a moment. Then, in an almost unintelligibly thick Mayfair accent: ‘I'd rather like a word with you, Miss Glass.’ 1967K. Giles Death in Diamonds i. 21 He's insolent, smooth and tough, very hip in his talk. Like the Mayfair boys in the thirties. 1970C. Drummond Stab in Back iv. 88 They 'ad a saying when we were young about ‘Mayfair Boys’, meaning gentlemen crooks.
Hence ˈMayfairish a., of the nature or character of Mayfair.
1938G. Allighan Sir John Reith iv. 235 The B.B.C. organisation..is too isolated from the common people. There is a West End outlook, a Mayfairish idea of the elite, an everlasting implication of superiority. 1967[see ideal home]. |