| 释义 |
▪ I. muff, n.2|mʌf|
Also 6–7 muffe.
[Prob. a. Du. mof (not found earlier than 17th c.), a. F. moufle (Walloon mofe, mouffe): see muffle n.5 Cf. G. muffe, muff (17th c.), Sw. muff.]
1. a. A covering (usually of fur and of cylindrical shape) into which both hands may be thrust from opposite ends to keep them warm.
Now used only by women; in 17–18th c. also by men.
1599B. Jonson Cynthia's Rev. ii. i, She alwayes weares a Muffe. 1608H. P. Epigr. 32 Should Spruso leaue the wearing of his muffe. 1662Pepys Diary 30 Nov., This day I first did wear a muffe, being my wife's last year's muffe. 1695Lond. Gaz. No. 3065/4 Lost.., a large Sabble Tip, Mans Muff, with a parting in the middle of it. 1713Gay Fan i. 205 Then in the muff th' unactive fingers lay, Nor taught the fan in various forms to play. 1746H. Walpole Let. to Mann 17 Jan., Seeing him [sc. a French spy] dangle on a gallows in his muff and boots. 1775F. Burney Early Diary 21 Nov., Another man..carries her muff, in which is her little lap-dog. 1847Alb. Smith Chr. Tadpole xii, She had also a muff, something like a grenadier's cap. 1902Daily Chron. 20 Dec. 8/3 One of the huge, flat, bag-shaped muffs that are now at the apex of fashion.
b. transf. (For foot-muff: see foot n. 35.)
1797Bailey & Culley Agric. Northumb. 132 The longwoolled sheep..were called Muggs, probably from their faces being covered with a muff of wool. 1802Paley Nat. Theol. xv. (ed. 2) 292 Such a defence is furnished to the swan in the muff in which its body is wrapped. 1830M. Donovan Dom. Econ. I. 223 The bottles may be enveloped in muffs made of thick canvass, to protect them from being broken by striking against each other.
†c. = muffle n.5 3, muffler 2 c. Obs.
1854Wilkes in 8th Rep. Comm. Lunacy App. G. 137 The means of restraint employed were the leather muff and wrist-straps, iron hand-cuffs [etc.]. Ibid., One patient..had been for some time wearing the muff and hobbles.
†2. = mitten n. 2. Obs.
Cf. the widespread dialectal use = mitten n. 1 (see E.D.D.).
1748Richardson Clarissa (1811) III. iii. 30 On her charming arms a pair of black velvet glove-like muffs of her own invention. 1749Fielding Tom Jones v. iv, She was playing one of her father's favourite tunes..when the muff fell over her fingers.
3. a. A tuft or crest on the heads of certain birds.
1849D. J. Browne Amer. Poultry Yd. (1855) 60 Whether the climate of Northern Europe has any tendency to develop the growth of crests, ‘muffs’, etc. (as in what are called Siberian fowls or muffed Dorkings), on the heads of fowls.
b. slang. The female pudenda. Also Comb., as muff-diver, one who practises cunnilingus.
1699B. E. New Dict. Cant. Crew, Muff, c. a Woman's Secrets. To the well-wearing of your Muff Mort, c. to the happy Consummation of your Marriage Madam, a Health. 1935J. Hargan Gloss. Prison Lang. 5 Muff-diver, performer of cunnilingus. 1961Partridge Dict. Slang Suppl. 1191/2 Muff-diver, a cunilingist [sic]. 1972Screw 12 June 5/2 Blowjobs are nice, but blowing into her muff can kill her. 1973H. Miller Open City xiv. 159 The local bookie's got Polaroids of her flashing her muff.
c. A woman or girl, esp. one of low morals; a prostitute. slang (orig. U.S.).
1914[see drag n. 3 e]. 1918Dialect Notes V. 26 Muff, a girl. South Idaho and University of Idaho. 1965H. C. Rae Skinner i. i. 10 Flappin' about a muff they found up in the woods.
4. In various technical senses.
a. Founding. (See quots.; cf. muffle n.4)
1756Dict. Arts & Sci. s.v. Foundery of Statues, The furnace consists of a hearth and its muff, a fire-place, an ash-hole, and an earthen bason... The muff is a brick arch made very low to reverberate the flame upon the metal. 1880Coach Builders' Art Jrnl. I. 86 If a silver beading is required a strip of copper and a strip of silver is taken and placed one on the other and put into a furnace (technically termed ‘muff’) to be annealed, that is, softened.
b. Glass-manuf. A cylinder of blown glass for flattening out into a plate.
1875in Knight Dict. Mech.
c. Plumbing. A joining tube driven into the ends of two adjoining pipes.
1875in Knight Dict. Mech.
5. attrib. and Comb., as muff-chain, muff-maker, muff-string, muff-stuffer, muff warmer; muff-headed adj.; muff-bag, a bag, usually of sealskin, on the outside of which is a muff; muff-box, (a) a box in which a muff is kept, or sold; (b) a large hat worn by women at the beginning of the 19th century; muff-cap jocular, a soldier's bearskin cap; muff-coated duck dial., the muscovy duck (Halliwell 1847); muff coupling, a cylindrical shaft coupling to fit over the abutting ends of shafts; muff pistol, the smallest size of nineteenth-century pocket pistol believed by some to have been designed to be carried in a muff (but see quot. 1969).
1895Army & Navy Price List 15 Sept. 1612/2 A large selection of Real and Imitation Sealskin *Muff Bags in stock.
1816J. Scott Vis. Paris (ed. 5) 101 Under the poke and the *muff-box, the face sometimes entirely disappears. 1834Muff-box [see bonnet-box s.v. bonnet n. 10]. 1868Mich. Agric. Rep. VII. 363 Henry Fowler [exhibited]..1 dozen muff and collar boxes, combined in one.
1864Pineas Ergänzungsbl. 34 *Muff-cap, Bärenmütze. 1872Daily Tel. 4 July 5/1 The Americans appear to have a peculiar fondness for the ‘busby’ and the muff-cap as items of military head-gear.
1902Words Eyewitness 204 The new-fashioned jewelled *muff-chains.
1887D. A. Low Machine Draw. (1892) 25 *Muff Couplings.
1768R. Smith Univ. Direct. Rats, etc. 139 These vermin [Water rats] are something like the Norway Rat, but smaller,..their heads rounder, or what is commonly termed, *muff-headed.
1688R. Holme Armoury iii. 25/1 By this Sign or Cognizance [of two Muffs]..you may easily know where a Furrier or *Muff-maker dwelleth.
1938J. N. George Eng. Pistols & Revolvers vii. 135 These so-called *muff-pistols were not necessarily intended as ladies' weapons. 1956W. E. Bird Off-Trail in Nova Scotia vi. 181 Another item is a muff pistol that was fired with a percussion cap and ball. 1969F. Wilkinson Antique Firearms 135 Some very small examples..are often described as muff pistols, although it is not at all clear on what basis this term was chosen. Certainly there is little or no evidence to suggest that they were intended primarily for ladies or indeed were ever carried in the muff, for both men and women of the period used muffs.
1706–7Farquhar Beaux Strat. i. i, A contrary sort..contract their spacious acres to the circuit of a *muff-string.
1895Army & Navy Price List 15 Sept. 308 *Muff Warmer, Nickel plated.
▪ II. muff, n.3 Obs. exc. dial.
[repr. an inarticulate sound; cf. the synonymous G. muff int., also humph, buff n.5, and Eng. dial. muff adj. = mum a. (see E.D.D.).]
In phr. not to say muff, to say neither muff nor mum: not to utter a sound.
Quot. c 1460 s.v. muff v.1 may perh. belong to this n.
1652C. B. Stapylton Herodian vi. 45 The drunken guards say not so much as muff. c1681Hickeringill Trimmer vi. Wks. 1716 I. 388 The slaves never durst mutter since, nor scarce say muff. 1881Leicestersh. Gloss. s.v. A didn' sey no moor, nayther moof nur moom.
▪ III. muff, n.4 colloq.|mʌf|
[Of doubtful origin.
As the word has not been found earlier than the second quarter of the 19th c. (being unrecorded even in the slang dictionaries), its identity with the long obsolete Muff n.1 is unlikely. It may be an application of muff n.2, conveying the scoffing accusation of keeping one's hands in a muff.]
1. Originally, one who is awkward or stupid in some athletic sport. Hence, in wider sense, one without skill or aptitude for some particular work or pursuit, a ‘duffer’; also, one who is generally deficient in practical sense. to make a muff of oneself: to make oneself ridiculous.
1837Dickens Pickw. vii, Such denunciations as—..‘Now butter-fingers’—‘Muff’..—and so forth. a1845Hood Pen & Pencil Pict. (1857) 144 Awful muff! Can't pull two strokes without catching as many crabs. 1857Hughes Tom Brown ii. iv, I didn't think..that you'd have been such a muff as to let him be getting wet through. 1860W. E. Forster Let. 5 Dec. in Reid Life (1888) I. viii. 324, I find I know absolutely nothing [he was going through a course of instruction in musketry], and am therefore a complete muff. 1866Mansfield Sch. Life Winchester (1870) 136, I was..rather a muff at the latter [sc. cricket]. 1880M. E. Braddon Just as I am xxi, I know I was a tremendous muff in the hunting-field. 1884Nonconf. & Indep. 25 Sept. 930/3 Both sides have succeeded in making muffs of themselves.
2. [Prob. from the verb.] A failure; anything clumsily or badly done or bungled, as a bad stroke of play in a game of ball; spec. in any game at ball, failure to hold a ball that comes into one's hands.
1871Punch 25 Feb. 81/2 Old Gent. ‘Well, Charlie, what sort of a book is that? interesting?’ Bloodthirsty Young Rascal. ‘Not a bit. It's a great muff. I've read sixty pages and there's only one man killed yet.’ 1897Farmer & Henley Slang, Muff{ddd}2. (common).—Anything badly bungled.
▪ IV. muff, n.5 dial.|mʌf|
[Perh. a use of muff n.2, from the ring of outstanding feathers round the neck. But cf. Du. mof greenfinch.]
The white-throat, Sylvia cinerea.
1831J. Rennie Montagu's Ornith. Dict. 538. 1839 [see muffet].
▪ V. muff, a.|mʌf|
[f. muff v.4]
In muff glass: glass which has been ‘muffed’.
1865Morn. Star 24 Apr., The subdued light from globes of muff glass... The light was..from globes of muff glass let into the ceiling. 1890Century Dict., Muff-glass.
▪ VI. muff, v.1 Obs. exc. dial. (see E.D.D.).
[Belongs to muff n.3]
intr. With expressed or implied negative: (Not) to say ‘muff’; (not) to utter a word.
Quot. c 1460 perh. belongs to muff n.3
c1460Towneley Myst. viii. 188 If thou can nother muf nor mom, I shall sheld the from shame. 1645E. Pagitt Heresiogr. (1647) 74 They dare not so much as whisper, or as much as muffe against it.
▪ VII. † muff, v.2 Obs. rare.
[f. muff n.2]
trans. To provide with a muff.
1621R. Brathwait Nat. Embassie, etc. 254 Th' Ladie in her coach..is muff'd when frosts approach. 1688R. Holme Armoury iii. 234/2 The Inhabitants [of France] in cold Weather keep warm, and Muff themselves.
▪ VIII. muff, v.3 colloq. and slang.
[f. muff n.4]
1. trans. To make a muddle or ‘mess’ of, to bungle; to perform or play badly or clumsily; to miss (a catch or ball) at cricket or other games. Also intr., to miss catches, to act bunglingly.
[1827W. Clarke Every Night Bk. 84 When one of the fancy dies, the survivors say, that he has..‘mizzled’—‘morrised’—or ‘muffed it’!] 1846W. Denison Cricket: Sk. Players 24 All the best of our players completely muffed their batting. 1857G. A. Lawrence Guy Liv. vi. 49, I don't see why you should have muffed that shot. 1860Hughes Tom Brown at Oxf. xiii, ‘Brazen-nose was better steered than Exeter’. ‘They muffed it in the Gut, eh?’ 1901Scotsman 5 Sept. 7/3 Mr. McDonald muffed his stroke [in golf]. 1950Times Lit. Suppl. 3 Mar. 131/3 It would be impossible for Sir Max Beerbohm to muff a parody. 1968J. R. Ackerley My Father & Myself xiii. 145 A few opportunities occurred. He muffed one of them, I another. 1972Jazz & Blues Oct. 30/1 If Mezz is indeed responsible for this exchange then the author muffs his lines badly. 1973Tucson (Arizona) Daily Citizen 22 Aug. 57/3 Third baseman Phil Garner muffed a grounder by Bill Ralston.
2. intr. To fail (in an examination).
1884J. Sturgis in Longm. Mag. III. 617 Freddy and Tommy and Dicky have all muffed for the army.
Hence muffed ppl. a., clumsily missed or bungled; ˈmuffing vbl. n. and ppl. a.
1841J. Mills Old Eng. Gentlm. i, You may rest assured that no muffing work would be looked over in any young man. 1876World V. No. 107. 18 A muffed catch raises the first little cloud of chaff. 1905Review of Rev. Feb. 115/2 There must be no more muffing of parliamentary chances.
▪ IX. muff, v.4
trans. = muffle v.1 5. Hence muffed ppl. a. = muffled ppl. a. 5. (Cf. muff a.)
1868Morn. Star 7 Jan., A cordon of white-muffed glass burners. 1877Eng. Mechanic 3 Aug. 522/3 Would some correspondent inform me how I am to proceed in muffing glass, leaving ornamental scroll work clear glass on muffed ground? |