| 释义 |
▪ I. mumchance, n. and a.|ˈmʌmtʃɑːns, -æ-|
Forms: 6 mom(me)cha(u)nce, mumchaunce, Sc. mwmschance, 6–7 mumschance, 7 mummechaunce, 6– mumchance.
[a. MLG. mummenschanze, -kanze a certain game of dice, also, a masked serenade (= MDu. mommecanse, mod.G. mummen-, mummschanz), f. mummen mum v. + schanz a. F. chance: see chance n.]
A. n.
†1. A dicing game resembling hazard. Obs.
1528Roy Rede me (Arb.) 60 To playe at the cardes and dyce Some of theym are nothynge nyce Both at hasard and momchaunce. 1607Dekker & Webster Westw. Hoe ii. ii, I thoght I had bin at Mum-chance my bones ratled so with iaunting? 1656Harrington Oceana (1658) 116 Do you conceive they will be better pleased when they shall be told, that upon like occasions you are at Mum-chance or Stool-ball?
†2. to play mumchance: fig. or allusively, to preserve a dogged silence. Obs.
1550Bale Eng. Votaries ii. 107 b, He played momme chaunce and wolde make none answere. 1552Huloet, Mumchaunce or silence.
†3. Masquerade; mumming. Obs.
1557–75Diurn. Occurr. (Bannatyne Cl.) 87 At evin our soueranis maid the maskrie and mumschance, in the quhilk the quenis grace, and all hir Maries and ladies were all cled in men's apperrell. 1581–2Burgh Rec. Edinb. (1882) IV. 229 Jhone Gilleis, doctour in Jhone Blakis schole, oblist himself nocht to pas in mwmschance after supper to mak playes or vse siclyke vaniteis heirafter. 1591R. Bruce Serm. vi. M 8, They haue..gone to mumchances, mumries & vnknawin language.
4. In similative phrases: One who acts in dumb show. Hence, one who has nothing to say, a ‘dummy’. Also as quasi-proper name, as the type of a silent person. Now only dial.
1694Echard Plautus 114 Why stand ye like a Mum⁓chance? What are ye tongue-ty'd? a1700B. E. Dict. Cant. Crew, Mum-chance, one that sits mute. He looks like Mum-chance that was Hang'd for saying of nothing. 1786Mackenzie Lounger No. 90 ⁋2 The poor creature..sat as silent as mum-chance.
B. adj. Silent; ‘tongue-tied’.
1681T. Flatman Heraclitus Ridens No. 49 (1713) II. 60 Conscience, that was so clamorous before, is Mumchance, and says nothing to the Matter. 1823Lamb Elia Ser. ii. New Yr.'s Coming of Age, Singling out poor Twenty Ninth of February that had sate all this while mumchance at the side-board. 1892Spectator 13 Feb. 229/2 Why are the pulpits alone to remain mumchance under penalties? 1897Daily Tel. 11 Mar. 5/5 The man or woman who can sit ‘mumchance’..over a well-acted farce do not deserve to be ranked in the noble army of all-embracing playgoers. 1900S. Weyman Sophia i, Such a mumchance fool as the girl herself is. 1903G. B. Shaw Man & Superman iv. 167, I couldn't sit mumchance and have everything put on me. 1957L. Durrell Justine ii. 133 For my part I remained always stupefied and mumchance at all the avenues opened up by these thoughts. 1971F. Meynell My Lives iv. 42 In a room of awesome vastness with a phalanx of dons at the distant end of it, I was mum-chance.
▪ II. † ˈmumchance, v. Obs. rare—1.
[f. prec. Cf. MDu. mommecansen.]
intr. To masquerade.
1606W. Birnie Kirk-Buriall (1833) 10 [At funerals] in steed of mourning in the dust, as they did oft-tymes, we mumchance and mourgean in such dilicate duilles. |