| 释义 |
▪ I. nudge, n.|nʌdʒ|
[f. the vb.]
1. A slight push or poke given to another with the elbow. Also fig.
1836Marryat Midsh. Easy xxii, Gascoigne gave Jack a nudge. 1847Alb. Smith Chr. Tadpole i, One of those pleasant nudges which funny men will inflict upon you. 1871B. Taylor Faust (1875) II. i. iii. 25 Though with one [thou] wast wont to dance, Gav'st another nudge and glance.
fig.1865Lowell Thoreau Prose Wks. 1890 I. 366 The mental and moral nudge which he received from the writings of his..brave-spirited countryman. 1922Joyce Ulysses 631 Hynes wrote it with a nudge from Corny. 1950Sun (Baltimore) 20 June 21/4 Didn't you like the comeback of Cardinal Manager Eddie Dyer when given a slight nudge over his club's loss of three straight. 1953A. Huxley Let. 19 July (1969) 679 Your publishers..would send me proofs as soon as they became available. I have heard nothing... Would you be kind enough to give them a little nudge?
2. nudge, nudge (wink, wink, etc.): a catch-phrase from the British television comedy programme Monty Python's Flying Circus (see Pythonesque a.), used to imply mischievously an insinuation or innuendo, esp. of a sexual or otherwise dubious nature.
1973Punch 7 Feb. 178/1 We are largely informed about British public affairs by a hallowed process of nudge-nudge, wink-wink, Know-what-I-mean. 1977Club Tennis Mar. 6/6 Senior lady players, in my experience (and I have some experience in that field, nudge, nudge), take very badly to being beaten by up-and-comings. 1977Daily Tel. 23 Sept. 16/5 In the sketches there is a bit too much of the nudge-nudge, wink-wink approach. 1979Guardian 24 May 11/7 Woman—a sexual object to be lusted after..whistled at on the silver screen and nudge nudge wink wink'd in every comedy series. 1981P. Inchbald Tondo for Short x. 109 Another good friend of ours, nudge nudge, wink wink, as the saying goes. 1985T. Heald Red Herrings iv. 115 He seemed to think I was running some sort of a brothel... He had one or two clients who..nudge, nudge, wink, wink, know what I mean.
▪ II. nudge, v.|nʌdʒ|
[Of obscure origin: perh. related to Norw. dial. nugga, nyggja, to push, rub.]
1. trans. To touch or push (one) slightly with the elbow for the purpose of attracting attention. Also transf. and fig.
1675Hobbes Odyssey (1677) 177 When a third part of the night was gone, I nudg'd Ulysses, who did next me lie. 1838Dickens Nich. Nick. vii, Squeers then nudged Mrs. Squeers to bring away the brandy bottle. 1860Holland Miss Gilbert's Career i, What wonder that Mrs. Bloomer and Mrs. Witton nudged each other? 1880Jefferies Hodge & M. II. 28 She is partly deaf, and until nudged by her neighbours did not hear her husband's name.
transf. and fig.1850Carlyle Latter-d. Pamph. i. 19 The inexorable Icebergs..will nudge you with most chaotic ‘admonition’. 1877G. H. Lewes Let. 27 Feb. in Geo. Eliot's Lett. (1956) VI. 345 He might still be induced to resume that idea if you thought fit to nudge his elbow a little. 1922Joyce Ulysses 63 Nudging the door open with his knee he carried the tray in. 1925H. V. Morton Heart of London (1926) 75 Watch the way a press of omnibuses..will edge and nudge a way with a mere inch between their mudguards. 1936Dylan Thomas Twenty-Five Poems 9 Half The dear, daft time I take to nudge the sentence. 1971Times 28 Aug. 10/1 A smarter, cleaner place undergoing the upheaval of architectural surgery, being nudged by bulldozers and demolition gangs from one century into the next. 1973Guardian 10 Mar. 1/7 Governments would use their reserves..and nudge the price if it tended to drift out of line. 1975Physics Bull. Apr. 162/1 The Science Research Council's attempts to nudge university research into areas more relevant to social and economic needs are meeting some resistance.
2. intr. To give a push or thrust. Also const. up, to move up by pushing.
1825Brockett N.C. Gloss. s.v., What are ye nudging at? 1888Goode Amer. Fishes 109 In the surf the Drum nudges like the sheepshead when he first takes the bait. 1940Dylan Thomas Portrait of Artist as Young Dog 7 The bar was full; two fat women in bright dresses sat near the door, one with a small, dark child on her knee; they saw Uncle Jim and nudged up on the bench.
Hence ˈnudging vbl. n.; ppl. a. and pres. pple., approaching, nearing, close to (used e.g. of someone's age).
1854Thoreau Walden 97 We are not awakened by our Genius, but by the mechanical nudgings of some servitor. 1858R. S. Surtees Ask Mamma iii, Amid the nudging of outsiders, and staring of street-loungers. 1880H. Conway Called Back 60 There were no nudgings and sly glances among our fellow passengers. 1889Farrar Lives Fathers II. xiv. 100 A gaping and nudging crowd. 1949E. E. Cummings Let. 23 Aug. (1969) 193 Now et comment The quote Oxford unquote Press registers alarm nudging horror. 1961Sunday Times 30 Apr. 13/6 Nudging forty..Secombe knows where his ultimate responsibility lies. 1969D. Barron Man who was There ii. 30 Hughes was tough and nudging fifty. 1971D. Lees Rainbow Conspiracy i. 17 The Manchester circulation is nudging the one and a half million a day mark. 1972A. MacVicar Golden Venus Affair i. 9, I was big, nudging six feet two. 1974Country Life 25 Apr. 1012/2 A fuel gauge nudging zero. |