| 释义 |
▪ I. nag, n.1|næg|
Forms: α. 5–7 nagge, 6–8 nagg, 5– nag. β. north. and Sc. 5–7 nage, 6– naig |neːg|. γ. neg.
[Of obscure origin: the corresponding Du. neg or negge has not been found earlier than Kilian, who gives ‘Negghe Holl. Fris. Mannus, equus pumilus. Ang. nagghe’.]
1. A small riding horse or pony.
αc1400Destr. Troy 7727 He neyt as a nagge, at his nose thrilles. c1440Promp. Parv. 350/1 Nagge, or lytylle beest, bestula, equillus. c1489Caxton Sonnes of Aymon v. 133 He wente to Kyng Yons courte vpon a lytyll nagge. 1509Hawes Past. Pleas. xxxii. (Percy Soc.) 157 Thus Correction, with her whyp did dryve The litle nagge. 1535Act 27 Hen. VIII, c. 6 §1 Horses and nagges of small stature and value. 1598Barret Theor. Warres v. ii. 143 A pretie light horse, such as be our Northerne nagges. 1617Moryson Itin. i. 56 They have very little horses in these parts to draw the Waggons, like to the galloway nags of Scotland. 1641Brome Joviall Crew iv. i, I prethee, good Friend, let our Nags be set up. 1709Prior Let. to Sir T. Hanmer 4 Aug., If at Rischam fair any pretty nagg..presented himself. 1732Bolingbroke Let. to Swift 18 July, Get on Pegasus..or mount the white nag in the Revelation. 1810Sporting Mag. XXXVI. 232 The unequalled goodness of the English nag. 1840Dickens Barn. Rudge i, His nag gone lame in riding out here. 1879Browning Martin Relph 130 Lend to a King's friend here your nag!
fig.a1764Lloyd Fam. Ep. Poet Wks. 1774 II. 58 As a plain nag, in homely phrase, I'll..make a trot in easy rhime.
β1464Mann. & Househ. Exp. (Roxb.) 195 Reynold Morgan on a bay nage of myn. 1471Paston Lett. III. 12 That the horse may be kept well,..and that Jakys nage have mete i-now also. 1532Test. Ebor. (Surtees) VI. 34 Unto my moder a bay nage. 1572Satir. Poems Reform. xxxii. 18 With our Naiggis to gane [= go] to Edinburgh. 1648Hamilton Papers (Camden) 150 That litell nage that I was bringinge for the Prince. a1774Fergusson Plainstanes & Cawsey Poems (1845) 47 Whinstanes houkit frae the Craigs May thole the prancin feet o' naigs. 1785Burns Ep. to J. Lapraik ii. ii, Dealing thro' amang the naigs Their ten-hours bite. 1814Scott Wav. xxx, The casualties whilk may befall the puir naig while in your honour's service. 1887Service Life Dr. Duguid 260 Saddling his naig he sallied oot to seek her.
γa1734North Lives (1826) I. 288 They [in Northumberland] were a comical sort of people, riding upon negs, as they call their small horses.
†b. transf. as a term of abuse. Obs.
1598Marston Sco. Villanie B 2 Hence lewd nags away, Goe read each poast,..Then to Priapus gardens. Ibid. E vii b, The witlesse sence Of these odde naggs, whose pates circumference Is fild with froth! 1606Shakes. Ant. & Cl. iii. x. 10 Yon ribaudred Nagge of Egypt..Hoists Sailes, and flyes.
2. attrib. and Comb., as nag-bell, nag-colt, nag horse, nag-tail; also nag-tailed adj.
1619in Ferguson & Nanson Munic. Rec. Carlisle (1887) 277 Mr. Maior..shall call for..the horse and nage bells with all expedytion. 1710Lond. Gaz. No. 4701/4 Stoln or stray'd.., a brown Bay Nag-Colt. 1769Stratford Jubilee I. i. 8 With relays of your nag-tailed bays. 1791Gilpin Forest Scenery ii. 256 The short dock everywhere disappeared{ddd}The nag-tail however still continued in use. Ibid., The nag-tail is still seen in all genteel carriages. 1816Sporting Mag. XLVIII. 239 A fall of 50l. per cent. has taken place in nag and hack horses.
▪ II. nag, n.2
occas. variant of knag n.1
a1775Jock o' the Side viii. in Child Ballads III. 481 They cut a tree with fifty nags [v.r. snags] upo' each side For to clim Newcastle wall.
▪ III. nag, n.3|næg|
[f. next.]
The act of nagging; irritating language.
1894Westm. Gaz. 26 Nov. 2/1 Its correspondent..quotes in support a counter piece of nag in some German Standard. 1895Daily News 14 Mar. 5/2 There is not a trace of ‘nag’ in their rejoinders. 1971J. Gardner Every Night's a Bullfight ix. 261 They had covered all their separate problems, yet the nag in Douglas's mind left him edgy about the box office situation. Ibid. x. 293 The added knowledge served to compound his growing nag of worry.
▪ IV. nag, v.|næg|
Also nagg, knag, gnag.
[Orig. a dialect word, and prob. of Scand. origin: cf. Norw. and Sw. nagga (obs. Da. nagge) to gnaw, bite, nibble; to vex, irritate; to be painful (Færöese nagga to rub; obs. Icel. nagga, ? to complain), with the related n. nagg (Da. nag) gnawing, remorse, rancour, pain, etc.
A LG. naggen in the sense ‘to irritate, provoke, etc.’ is also recorded in the 15th c. (in Teuthonista), and appears (along with gnaggen) to be still in use. In some northern Eng. dialects a variant naig (knaig, gnaig), recorded from 1781 onwards, occurs in the same senses as nag.]
1. dial.
a. trans. and intr. To gnaw, to nibble.
1825Brockett N.C. Gloss., Nag, to gnaw at anything hard. 1854A. E. Baker Northampt. Gloss. s.v., The child likes to gnag at a crust. 1869Lonsdale Gloss., Nag, to natter or nibble as a mouse. 1876Mid-Yorksh. Gloss. s.v., Give t' dog a bone to nag.
b. intr. To keep up a dull gnawing pain; to ache persistently.
1836[see nagging ppl. a. 1]. 1879[see 4]. 1886Cheshire Gloss. s.v., ‘How's your face, now?’ ‘Well, it nags a bit’.
2. a. To be persistently worrying or irritating by continued fault-finding, scolding, or urging.
1828Craven Gloss., Knag, to wrangle, to quarrel, to raise peevish objections. 1859B. Jerrold Life Jerrold 216 The servant writes..to know whether Mrs. Squaw nags. 1863Sat. Rev. 3 Oct., Man was formed to bully, as woman was formed to nag. 1880Spurgeon Ploughm. Pict. 112 If they are always nagging and grumbling they will lose their hold of their children.
b. Const. at a person, etc.
1857Sir F. Palgrave Norm. & Eng. II. 706 He was constantly..knagging at Richard's power and prosperity. 1865Trollope Belton Est. xvii. 203 It's no good my mother nagging at me. 1894Birrell Ess. xviii. 208 Authors and critics cannot help nagging at one another.
3. a. trans. To assail or annoy (a person) with persistent fault-finding or provocation; to irritate with continuous urging to something. Also transf. and fig.
1840Spurdens Suppl. Forby s.v., They tew mawthers are ollost nagging one another. 1849Alb. Smith Pottleton Legacy xxii, Not having anybody to abuse directly, they began to knag their brother. 1861Dixon Bacon x. §9 When she again goes home to Westwood Park she nags and frets Sir John. 1874L. Carr Jud. Gwynne I. iii. 75 In spite of his heroic stolidity and equanimity even when being nagged to desperation. 1921Challenge 28 Oct. 375/1 He nags his brain into a state of consuming doubt, but dares not arrive at any conclusion. 1958L. Durrell Balthazar viii. 172 As I examined him a phone started to nag somewhere. 1960Times 20 June 4/2 Laver, a fighter still nagged by his shoulder. 1963Times 4 Mar. 5/1 Barrington was a little out of sorts with himself, and after Yuile..had tied him down by curling the ball into the wind, Reid nagged him out. 1969Listener 6 Mar. 324/1, I am told that R. P. Blackmur used to give a lecture on Jane Austen in which he explored her work in terms of the verb ‘to nag’ (‘she nags out her plots’).
b. To wear out by nagging.
1870Verney L. Lisle xxvii, To have a tongue to nagg folk's lives out.
4. Used with repetition of the stem-syllable to express the persistency of the action.
1860Thackeray Lovel iii. 88 Is it pleasing to..have your wife nagnagging you because she has not been invited..? 1879G. F. Jackson Shropsh. Word-bk. s.v., The tuth-ache..kep' nag, nag, naggin'..till about four o'clock. |