| 释义 |
▪ I. mouser|ˈmaʊzə(r)|
Forms: 5 mowsare, 6– mouser.
[f. mouse v. + -er1.]
1. An animal that catches mice; esp. applied to a cat, or an owl.
c1400Promp. Parv. 347/1 Mowsare, as a catte, musceps. 1573Tusser Husb. (1878) 172 Though cat (a good mouser) doth dwell in a house, yet euer in dairie haue trap for a mouse. 1692R. L'Estrange Fables lxi. 61 For Puss, even when she's a Madam, will be a Mouser still. 1771Foote Maid of B. ii. Wks. 1799 II. 222 Owls..are counted very good mousers. 1839–40W. Irving Wolfert's R. (1855) 9 Watching for hours together any ship or galley at anchor or becalmed—as a valorous mouser will watch a rat hole. 1921T. S. Eliot Let. c 11 Oct. in Waste Land Drafts (1971) p. xxi, Would you be able to house a small cat which we are very fond of?.. It is a very good mouser. 1939― Old Possum's Pract. Cats 38 No commonplace mousers have such well-cut trousers. 1966A. Christie Third Girl xvii. 178 You're so exactly like a good mouser. A cat sitting over a hole waiting for the mouse to come out.
fig.1608Day Law-Tricks iii. E 2, Bring the Lady a Diamond,..for I can tel you these same paultrie stones are in high request amongst Ladies, especially such old mowsers as I haue beene in my time. 1848Lowell Lett. (1894) I. 147 He [Shakspeare] invented a new order of poetry; for, let the mousers trace all the resemblances they will, it is entirely new in its idea.
2. slang.
a. (see quot. 1802);
b. a detective.
1802C. James Milit. Dict., Mouser, an ironical term, which is sometimes used in the British militia to distinguish battalion men from the flank companies. It is indeed generally applied to them by the grenadiers and light bobs, meaning, that while the latter are detached, the former remain in quarters, like cats, to watch the mice, &c. 1863Confess. Ticket of Leave Man 266 Two shrewd ‘mousers’, were sent off at once with Mr. Gee to York Street.
▪ II. mouser(e
obs. forms of mouse-ear. |