| 释义 |
ninepins, n. pl.|ˈnaɪnpɪnz|
[pin n.1 8.]
1. A game in which nine ‘pins’ are set up to be knocked down by a ball or bowl thrown at them.
1580Hollyband Treas. Fr. Tong, Quilles, as iouër aux quilles, to play at nine pins. 1610Beaum. & Fl. Scornf. Lady iv. i, Thy dry bones can reach at nothing now, but gords or nine-pinnes. 1647Peacham Worth of a Penny 31 The most ordinary recreations of the Countrey are football, skales or nine pins, shooting at butts [etc.]. 1663Pepys Diary 27 May, Afterwards to nine-pins, Creed and I playing against my Lord and Cooke. 1712Arbuthnot John Bull i. iv, You Sot,..you spend your Time at Billiards, Ninepins, or Puppet-shows. 1774Westm. Mag. II. 315 Swains appeared in fancy dresses, amusing themselves at the game of Ninepins. 1829Carlyle Misc. (1857) II. 4 A little boy was playing nine-pins on the streets of Mentz. 1856‘Stonehenge’ Brit. Rural Sports 511 Skittles, nine pins, and Dutch pins, are modifications of the same game.
2. The pins with which this game is played; also in sing. of one of these.
1664Butler Hud. ii. i. 488 As when Merchants break, o'erthrown Like Nine-pins, they strike others down. 1691J. Wilson Belphegor iv. iv, 'Tis a wonder, no more follow him: for it is often with Merchants, as Nine-Pins. 1697W. Dampier Voy. (1699) 165 Some of these Trees..being big-bellied like Nine-pins. 1794[see 3]. 1807Crabbe Par. Reg. i. 661 The bowl that beats the greater number down Of tottering nine-pins. 1819Scott Ivanhoe xli, When his holiness rolled on the green like a king of the nine-pins. 1864G. M. Musgrave Ten Days in Fr. Parsonage II. iii. 108 Little urchins..tumbled about like ninepins.
b. Humorously applied to a child.
1862Mrs. H. Wood Channings II. xix. 289 Little ninepins, would you like to get three-pence?
3. attrib. and Comb., as ninepin alley, ninepin yard; ninepin high, ninepin-like adjs.; ninepin block, Naut. a block so called from its shape.
1756Walpole Lett. to Bentley Aug., The bowling-green..contains no less than four obelisks, as look like a Brobdignag *nine-pin-ally. 1758Johnson Idler No. 28. ⁋4 An alehouse.., with a ninepin alley.
1794Rigging & Seamanship 156 *Nine-pin-blocks. The shells..resemble the shape of a nine-pin... They are used to lead the running ropes in a horizontal direction. 1841Dana Seaman's Man. 116 Ninepin Block, a block in the form of a ninepin, used for a fair leader in the rail.
1710Brit. Apollo No. 100. 2/2 Little dirty Brats scarce *Nine-pin high.
1704Phil. Trans. XXV. 1547 The *Nine-pin like Particles.
1709Lond. Gaz. No. 4525/3 Bowling-Greens, and *Nine-pin Yards. |