| 释义 |
next door
[next a. 1.]
1. a. The (door of the) nearest or adjoining house. Also in fig. uses, and sometimes with omission of the (cf. 2).
c1485Digby Myst. (1882) ii. 95 Yf on loke yow in the face that neuer se yow ere, Wold thynk ye were at the next dore by. 1548Udall, etc. Erasm. Par. Mark i. 9 A sinner whiche..is at the next door to saluacion. 1628Earle Microcosm., Good old man (Arb.) 89 The next doore of death sads him not, but hee expects it calmely as his turne in Nature. 1634Sir T. Herbert Trav. 151 When they goe but to the next doore they doe it riding. 1643Trapp Comm. Gen. xix. 11 As if they were ambitious of destruction, which now was at next door by. 1760–72H. Brooke Fool of Qual. (1809) II. 137 The sweet babies at the next door! 1843Dickens Christmas Carol ii. 59 Trying to hide himself behind the girl from next door but one.
b. By extension, the occupant of the adjoining house; so Mrs. next-door. Also, next-door-but-one, the occupant of the house two doors away.
1855Dickens Prince Bull in Househ. Words 17 Feb. 51/1 One answered, ‘I will if next door will;’ and another, ‘I won't, if over the way does.’ 1933D. C. Peel Life's Enchanted Cup xi. 127 It..occurred to him that our extra pair of guests might belong to one of the ‘next doors’. 1935Punch 27 Nov. 590/1 Next-door-but-one was rather a strain. Have you ever imagined canvassing through a speaking-tube? 1951W. Morum Gabriel i. i. 20, I showed it to Mrs. Next-door. Ibid. vii. 95 Aunt Amy came in carrying a roast chicken... ‘One of next-door's,’ she said. 1960Willmott & Young Family & Class in London Suburb ix. 107 Next door but one has pussy when we go on holiday. Last year she broke her arm and I used to go in and help her. 1962Guardian 30 July 4/3 Most of us have had to pick up Mrs. Next-Door's torn-up letters.
2. In adverbial use († rarely with the).
a. Very close or near to (a state, condition, etc.); almost amounting to (something). † Also const. by.
1529More Dyaloge 22 b/1 Those vyagys bene but..the nexte dore to Idoletry. 1542Udall Erasm. Apoph. (1877) 41 He meaneth..to make a good beginnyng not to bee a little, but to be nexte doore by a little, or nexte cousin to a little. 1628T. Spencer Logick 115 Such a one is next dore to salvation. 1656[? J. Sergeant] tr. T. White's Peripat. Inst. 62 Water..makes the body flaccid and loose, and next door to dissolution. 1699R. L'Estrange Erasm. Colloq. (1725) 202 This same Fawn I perceive is next door to a Fool. 1719De Foe Crusoe ii. (Globe) 329 To be next Door to Starving. 1793Gouv. Morris in Sparks Life & Writ. (1832) II. 380 The opera girl, Saunier, who is, though very beautiful, next door to an ideot as to her intellectual gifts. 1822–56De Quincey Confess. (1862) 161 Parliament had not then made it a crime next door to a felony. 1850Gladstone Glean. (1879) II. 69 To speak of a thorough knowledge of Greek as being still next door to a miracle. 1878Spurgeon Serm. XXIV. 713 The idea is next door to blasphemous.
b. In or at the next house (to a person or place). boy next door: see boy n.1 8; (the) girl next door: see girl n. 2 h.
1579Lyly Euphues 131 It is an olde Prouerbe that if one dwell the next doore to a creple he will learne to hault. 1633G. Herbert Temple, Praise iv, A herb destill'd, and drunk, may dwell next doore..To a brave soul. 1669Sturmy Mariner's Mag. c 4 The Cross-daggers in Moor-fields, next door to the Popes Head Tavern. 1738Swift Pol. Conversat. Introd. 8 At his Lodgings next Door to the Gloucester-Head. 1863Lady Hornby Constantinople 107 The Armenian lady next door, to whom the house belongs.
3. attrib., as next-door neighbour(dom), next door town.
1749Fielding Tom Jones iv. xii, Persons who live two or three miles distance in the country are considered as next door neighbours. 1806–7J. Beresford Miseries Hum. Life (1826) vii. iv, A perpetual blister;—alias, a sociable next-door-neighbour. 1859Mrs. Carlyle Lett. II. 394 When he had done with our next-door neighbour. 1882H. C. Merivale Faucit of B. III. ii. xix. 154 The arrangements of next-door-neighbourdom were of so casual a kind. 1897M. Kingsley W. Africa 330 He never eats it himself, but the next-door town does. |