| 释义 |
▪ I. ˈMurphy1
illiterate perversion of Morpheus.
1748Smollett Rod. Rand. xvi. (1760) I. 110 When Murfy sends his puppies to the heys of slipping mortals. 1841Marryat Poacher xi, We dropped into the arms of Murfy. 1890G. Stables For England, etc. xiii. 194 It's the nightmare I'll be having..as soon as I'm in the arms av Murphy.
▪ II. Murphy2 slang.|ˈmɜːfɪ|
[Jocular uses of a common Irish surname.]
†1. Murphy's countenance: ‘a pig's face’.
1812J. H. Vaux Flash Dict.
2. Also murphy, etc. A potato.
1811Lex. Balatron., Murphies, potatoes. 1827Egan Anecd. Turf 151 Mathews relished the Irish stews and murpheys with greater goût. a1845Hood To Henrietta vii, No, no, they have no murphies there, for supper or for lunch. 1857Hughes Tom Brown i. vi, She bakes such stunning murphies.
3. Murphy's law: a name humorously given to various aphoristic expressions of the apparent perverseness and unreasonableness of things (see quots.). orig. U.S.
1958Nation (N.Y.) 7 June 506/1 There is an old military maxim known as Murphy's Law which asserts that where-ever there is a bolt to be turned, someday there will be someone to turn it the wrong way. 1961Leeds & Weinberg Computer Programming Fund. viii. 241 What we desire is the presentation of the information in such an accurate and complete form that the reader will be able to use the sub-routine correctly without hesitation or question. Recalling ‘Murphy's law’—‘If something can go wrong or be misinterpreted, it will’—should be enough stimulus for the goals we desire. 1962J. Glenn in Into Orbit 85 We blamed human errors like this on what aviation engineers call ‘Murphy's Law’. ‘Murphy’ was a fictitious character who appeared in a series of educational cartoons put out by the U.S. Navy... Murphy was a careless, all-thumbs mechanic who was prone to make such mistakes as installing a propeller backwards. 1970Sci. Amer. June 143 Recently..I learned of a governing principle known as Murphy's first law of biology. It states: ‘Under any given set of environmental conditions an experimental animal behaves as it damn well pleases.’ 1972Oxf. Times 22 Sept. 12/7 That malign influence which presides over human and typographical enterprises, and which is sometimes described as Murphy's Law (‘Things are out to get us’). 1973G. Hart Right from Start i. 45 According to Murphy's law, if the worst possible thing can happen, it will. 1974N.Y. Times Mag. 8 Sept. 33/1 ‘If anything can go wrong, it will,’ says Murphy's Law.
4. Name given (in full, Murphy game) to a confidence trick in which the victim is duped by unfulfilled promises of money or sex, etc. So Murphy man, one who practises confidence tricks of this kind; to Murphy v. trans., to dupe, to swindle by means of such a trick. U.S. slang.
1959Washington Post 2 Oct. B 8/1 The ‘Murphy game’ is..a confidence game... The victim or ‘pigeon’ is lured by promises of a woman and then given..paper cut to bill size, in an envelope exchanged for the victim's cash. 1965N.Y. Times 6 Apr. 1/3 Mayor Smitherman..and..a Selma lawyer..were ‘murphyed’ by the Negro confidence man at 2:30 a.m. today. 1965Time 16 Apr. 16 ‘The Murphy game’ is underworld argot for a slick maneuver in which a victim puts his cash in an envelope and gives it to the con man, who makes a fast sleight-of-hand switch and hands back an identical envelope stuffed with newspaper strips. 1966N.Y. Times 4 Sept. iv. 5 Everybody should have a car... How are you going to get it?.. You know, you can get it playing the Murphy. 1968W. Labov et al. in A. Dundes Mother Wit (1973) 331 The right of a hand of some murphy man. 1970C. Major Dict. Afro-Amer. Slang 83 Murphy, a con game played on innocent (especially white) men who are expecting sex with a prostitute (usually black). 1972T. Kochman Rappin' & Stylin' Out 244 An adept hustler who was playing the ‘murphy’ game on a white trick. 1972J. Mills Report to Commissioner 52, I thought he was a complainant{ddd}some school kid who'd been Murpheyed. Ibid. 55 We stop in a bar..and it's filled with pimps, Murphy men, guys like that.
▪ III. Murphy3 N. Amer.|ˈmɜːfɪ|
The name of William Lawrence Murphy (1876–1959), American manufacturer, used attrib. in Murphy bed, any of various types of folding beds, developed from an original design by Murphy.
1925Small Home Mar. 31 (Advt.), The closet off the living-room has been equipped with a Murphy Bed. 1930N.Y. Times 2 Mar. xiii. 10/2 (Advt.), Apartments Unfurnished... 40s East—Most charming one-room apartment in town; restaurant, telephone service, Murphy beds: $78.50. 1969L. Hellman Unfinished Woman vi. 63 They lived in the Murphy-bed, modern apartments that were already the slums off Hollywood Boulevard. 1974Apartment Life May E2/2 The concealed wall bed, best known as a Murphy bed in the 1930s, is coming out of the woodwork again. |