| 释义 |
mobsman|ˈmɒbzmən|
[f. mob's, genitive of mob n.1]
1. One of a mob or crowd.
1868Express 20 May, To..find himself in a well-dressed, querulous, selfish mob,..to see small detachments of his fellow mobsmen conveyed by policemen through phaetons and barouches [etc.]. 1881W. H. Mallock in Contemp. Rev. 938 Of all these thousands of men [composing a mob] each man has his own separate temperament... The passions that direct him as a mobsman may be quite dormant in private life. 1901R. M. Stillard B. Sullivan II. 10 Forrest had none of his mobsmen in the theatre that evening to repeat the disturbance.
2. (In full swell mobsman.) A member of the swell mob (see mob n.1 4). Also, = next.
1846Swell's Night Guide p. iii, The tophic blacklegs and swell mobsman, who can pluck a pigeon with the sang froid of a ripened friendship. 1851–61Mayhew Lond. Labour II. 369 Swell-mobsmen, and thieves, and housebreakers. 1862Ibid. IV. 25 ‘Mobsmen’, or those who plunder by manual dexterity. 1856Q. Rev. June 183 The swell mobsmen proper generally work together at races in gangs of from three to seven. Ibid., A school of mobsmen. 1904Daily News 9 Nov. 2 He belonged to a gang of swell mobsmen who frequented the West-end. 1935A. J. Pollock Underworld Speaks 77/1 Mobsman, a gangster, a thug; ruffian; gunman. 1974Daily Tel. (Colour Suppl.) 29 Nov. 86/4 It is doubtful if the Victorian Londoner needed warning, for the artful mobsmen, toolers and dippers, together with their stickman accomplices, were everywhere among the crowds. |