| 释义 |
▪ I. miff, n. colloq. and dial.|mɪf|
[Perh. imitative of an instinctive expression of disgust; cf. early mod.G. muff int. (also miff-muff), whence muff n., a manifestation of disgust (see M. Heyne in Grimm s.v.).]
A fit of peevish ill-humour; a petty quarrel; a huff, tiff: esp. in phr. to get, have, take a miff, † to take miff, to be in a miff.
1623C. Butler Fem. Mon. v. (ed. 2) L iv, This is not to be done..lest some of the Bees take a miffe and goe home again. 1726Arbuthnot Let. to Swift 8 Nov., I gave your service to Lady Harvey. She is in a little sort of a miff about a ballad, that was wrote on her. 1749Fielding Tom Jones iii. vi, When a little quarrel, or miff, as it is vulgarly called, arose between them. 1821E. Nathan Langreath I. 136, I should take miff every time I come into your house. 1825J. Neal Bro. Jonathan I. 374 If she should git another miff, we'd never be able to appease her. 1844Willis Lady Jane ii. 716 Like ladies in a miff who won't explain! 1854De Quincey War Wks. 1890 VIII. 378 We have a French anecdote..which ascribes one bloody war to the accident of a little ‘miff’ arising between the king and his minister upon some such trifle as [etc.]. 1894T. Hardy Life's Little Ironies (ed. 3) 232 'Twill cause 'em to kick up a bit of a miff, for certain.
▪ II. miff, a. rare.|mɪf|
[f. miff n.]
Out of humour, offended (with).
The first quot. may belong to miff v.
1797Coleridge Sonn., To Simplicity, But should a friend and I Grow cool and miff, O! I am very sad! 1802W. Taylor Let. to Southey 6 Feb. in Robberds Mem. I. 447 You are right about Burnett, but being miff with him myself, I would not plead against him in the least particular.
▪ III. miff, v.|mɪf|
[f. miff n.]
1. intr. To take offence with or at. Also transf. of a plant, to miff off, to go off, fade.
1797A. Barnard Lett. (1901) 73 We wish to have no quarrels and no miffs. They had wished to miff with us, but we are so civil,..they cannot make it out. 1879G. F. Jackson Shropsh. Word-bk., Miff, to take offence hastily. ‘'E miffed at it direc'ly.’ 1883N. & Q. 6 Oct. 267/2 A curious word came under my notice of late with regard to a flower losing its strength and beauty. I was speaking to a Surrey gardener about some fading plants, and he remarked that they were ‘miffing off’. 1895Ellacombe Glouc. Garden xviii, Another alpine which is very apt to ‘miff off’ if grown in the open border. 1907R. J. Farrer My Rock-garden v. 71 Here it flowers once, then it miffs off without any apparent reason. 1960F. C. Stern Chalk Garden vii. 73 We have sometimes been successful with it [sc. a peony], but it miffs off for no apparent reason.
2. trans. To put out of humour. Chiefly in pa. pple.
1811C. Mathews Let. Dec. in A. Mathews Mem. Charles Mathews (1838) II. 177 You give me much gratification by your explanation of the word that miffed me. 1824Scott Redgauntlet let. xii, ‘What needs she another..?’ answered my Thetis, a little miffed perhaps—to use the women's phrase—that I turned the conversation upon my former partner. 1851Mayne Reid Scalp Hunt. xxx. 230 ‘No-o’, slowly drawled Rube, apparently ‘miffed’ at being thus interrupted. 1889Kansas City (Missouri) Times & Star 27 Nov., Dr. G. W. Fitzpatrick..is badly miffed because he wasn't appointed surveyor of the port. 1904E. Robins Magnetic North i. 252 Don't get mifft, Colonel. 1907N.Y. Even. Post (Semi-Weekly ed.) 2 Sept. 4 He is a little miffed to find that there are other lawyers in the Cabinet whose advice the President prefers to his own. 1957New Yorker 26 Oct. 82/2 The feminine contingent..was..more than a little miffed, to learn that London..had got married. 1972Times Lit. Suppl. 18 Feb. 173/3 Understandably, he is more than a little miffed by all this. 1973Daily Tel. (Colour Suppl.) 23 Feb. 54/2 He told us a slightly improper story. The girls were not shocked but were rather miffed at his thinking they would not be. |