| 释义 |
-napping, suffix colloq. (orig. U.S.).|-næpɪŋ|
[The final element of kidnapping vbl. n.]
Appended (with or without hyphenation) to nouns, and used to denote the action or process of stealing or carrying off (often for a ransom) a person, animal, etc., of the type specified by the first element, as dognapping vbl. n. ˈpetnapping, ˈship-napping, etc.
(Many of the words illustrated below or recorded in our files are humorous nonce-formations; typically those relating to the theft of small animals seem to be better established.)
1967Compton Yearbk. 111/1 In recent times petnapping has been a $50-million-a-year business. 1974New Yorker 25 Feb. 122/3 Icarus, our hero, escapes from a novel being written by Hubert Lubert... Lubert, suspecting a character-napping by his rival Surget, hires the farcically inept detective Morcol. 1978Washington Post 29 Dec. d1 The latest rash of art-nappings gives museums the jitters. 1984Observer 5 Feb. 5/3 It is just a year since the most bizarre ‘horsenapping’ of all time took place. 1988New Republic 24 Mar. 14/3 During the Achille Lauro ship-napping, the joke around Washington was that PLO stood for Push Leon (Klinghoffer) Over.
Also -nap (forming nouns and transitive vbs.), -napped (forming adjs.) and -napper (forming agent-nouns), as art-nap n., cat-nap v. trans., horse-napper n., petnapper n., etc.
1966Sci. News LXXXIX. 317/1 With the increasing number of animal care bills before Congress, medical researchers are worried that they might get hog-tied along with the petnappers. 1978Washington Post 29 Dec. d2/6 What's happening here may be..a whole rash of art-naps. 1983D. Francis Danger xii. 167 ‘Enough to put the horse-nappers off for life.’ ‘Would your firm work to free a horse?’ she asked curiously. 1983Daily Tel. 22 Sept. 19/6 Mr Smith said: ‘I admit I shot a black and white cat but it was not his lordship's.’.. He suggested that Tilley may have been ‘cat-napped’. 1989Oxford Star 16 Mar. 1 (heading) Catnapped. Stolen cats are being killed for their fur. |