| 释义 |
▪ I. nut, n.1|nʌt|
Forms: α. 1 hnutu (pl. hnyte, hnite, nyte), 2–4, 6 nute (3 nouthe). β. 3–5 note (4 nhote), 5 noote. γ. 4–6 nott(e, 5–6 not. δ. 4–6 nutte, 5–8 nutt, 6– nut (8–9 Sc. nit).
[Common Teut.: OE. hnutu fem. = MDu. note, nuete (Du. noot, neut), and not, MLG. note, not, ON. hnot (Norw. not, Sw. nöt, Da. nöd), OHG. (h)nuz̧ (G. nuss). The stem *hnut-:—pre-Teut. *knud-, is related to that of OIr. cnū, Gael. cnù, cnò, Welsh cneuen (pl. cnau) nut.]
I.
1. a. A fruit which consists of a hard or leathery (indehiscent) shell enclosing an edible kernel; the kernel itself.
For the many specific names of nuts, and of other fruits or vegetable products to which the name is loosely applied (as earth-nut, pea-nut), see the distinguishing word.
αc875Erfurt Gloss. 15 Abilina, hnutu. c975Rushw. Gosp. Matt. vii. 16 Ah he somniᵹaþ..of gorstum ficos vel nyte? c1000Sax. Leechd. III. 134 Pinhnutena cyrnles, & amigdalas, & oþera hnutena cyrnlu. c1175Lamb. Hom. 79 Me brekeð þe nute for to habbene þene curnel. c1265Voc. Plants in Wr.-Wülcker 557 Auellane, petite noiz, litel nute. a1300Cursor M. 18833 His hare [was] like to þe nute brun, Quen it for ripnes fals dun. c1590Montgomerie Sonn. xlvi. 8 Lat sie vho first my wedfie wins; For I will wed ane apple and a nute [rime shute].
βc1290Beket 1191 in S. Eng. Leg. I. 140 Deinteþes to him brouȝte, Applene, & peoren, and notes also. 13..K. Alis. 5193 It wil al fruyt ete, Applen, noten, reisyns, and whete. 1387Trevisa Higden (Rolls) VII. 129 Þe duke bouȝte notes wiþ þe whiche he seþe his mete and vitailles. c1440Gesta Rom. lvi. 373 Þe ape wil gladly Ete the kyrnell of the note, for it is swete. 1486Bk. St. Albans b iij b, Wete a morcell of flesh therin, the mowntenaunce of a Note.
γc1380Wyclif Wks. (1880) 12 A fewe peris, appelis or nottis. 1398Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xvii. cviii. (Bodl. MS.), The nutte tre hatte Nux & so þe notte also. c1425Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 647 Hec nux,..notte. 1486Bk. St. Albans c v, Pellettis of the grettenes of a Not. Ibid. f vij, A Clustre of Nottis. c1532G. Du Wes Introd. Fr. in Palsgr. 912 Small nottes, noisettes.
δc1400Mandeville (Roxb.) xxix. 131 Treesse berand garioflez and nute mugez and grete nuttez of Inde. c1450Mirour Saluacioun (Roxb.) 59 Thai callid figes, Razines and Nuttes and apples collibies. 1526Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 5 b, As the shale of the nut to be broken that he may fede of the cornell. 1594Carew Huarte's Exam. Wits xiv. (1596) 258 He hath his haire coloured like a nut full ripe. 1642Fuller Holy & Prof. St. iii. xvii. 196 Worldly riches, like nuts, teare many clothes in getting them. 1671Salmon Syn. Med. iii. xxii. 413 Haslenut tree, the nut is pectoral. 1732Arbuthnot Rules of Diet in Aliments, etc. i. 257 Such as abound with a soft Oil,..as most sorts of Nuts. 1784Cowper Task i. 315 The beech of oily nuts Prolific. 1828Scott F.M. Perth xiii, My Lord of Rothsay, who..was cracking nuts with a strolling musician. 1864Tennyson En. Ard. 556 Soft fruitage, mighty nuts, and nourishing roots.
b. As a symbol of something of trifling value.
c1300Havelok 419 He ne yaf a note of his oþes. Ibid. 1332 Nouth þe worth of one nouthe [= nute]. 1340Ayenb. 143 Ne prosperite ne aduersete of þe wordle hi ne prazeþ ane nhote.
†c. One of the seeds in a pine-cone. Obs.
c1000Sax. Leechd. I. 250 Ᵹenim..cyrnlu of pintrywenum hnutum. 1611Cotgr., Noix de pin,..the nut, or fruit of the Pine-apple. 1727Bradley Fam. Dict. s.v. Fir tree, The Kernels and Nuts, which may be got out of their Cones and Clogs.
†d. The stone of a peach or date. Obs. rare.
1600Pory tr. Leo's Africa iii. 207 Their peaches they cut into fower quarters, and casting away the nuts or stones, they drie them in the sunne. Ibid. vi. 269 They feede their goates with the nuts or stones of their dates beaten to powder, whereby they grow exceeding fat.
†e. The fruit of the cocoa-tree. Obs.
1707W. Funnell Voy. v. 89 The Nut or Kernel..ripens in a great Husk, wherein are sometimes 30, nay 40 cocoas. 1711Spect. Advt. (1891) 903 Chocolate all Nut 2s. 6d. and 3s. with sugar 1s. 8d.
f. Pl. vulg. The testicles. Also in various vulgar phrases.
1915Dialect Notes IV. 186 Nut, in pl. testicles. 1922Joyce Ulysses 467 How's the nuts?.. Off side. Curiously they are on the right. Heavier I suppose. 1955W. Gaddis Recognitions ii. vii. 630 The lady lost her nuts, Anselm said to no one. He mumbled,—That's the world we live in, the ladies wear the nuts. 1969B. Malcolm in A. Chapman New Black Voices (1972) 385 Easy way out To hate the white man..for Kicking my papa in the nuts. 1970C. Major Dict. Afro-Amer. Slang 58 Get (one's) nuts off, sexual release, implies ejaculation more than orgasm. 1970E. Bullins Theme is Blackness (1973) 167 Screwin' my best white friend's black wife makes me feel even better. Makes me get my nuts off. 1973R. Busby Pattern of Violence v. 79 Russell got a boot in the nuts. 1974J. Wainwright Evidence I shall Give xxi. 102 He was working his nuts off.
†2. A cup formed from the shell of a coconut mounted in metal; also, one made of other materials to resemble this. Obs. (See also 4 c.)
1337in Riley Mem. Lond. (1868) 200 One cup called ‘note’, with a foot and cover of silver, value 30s. 1427Will of Esturmy (Somerset Ho.), Vnum note de dogean cum coopertario. 1479Paston Lett. III. 272 A blak notte standing of silver and gilt, with a kover to the same. 1520Sir R. Elyot Will in Elyot Gov. (1883) App. A, ii playn bolles of silver.., ii nuttes garnysshed with silver and gilt. c1580in Archæol. (1840) XXVIII. 132 A drynkinge nutte of sylver, worth about twentie pounds. [1828Scott F.M. Perth xvi, Tender him the nut once more.]
3. In various proverbial and allusive contexts. (For deaf nut see deaf a. 6 b.) Phr. for nuts, in neg. contexts: at all.
1562J. Heywood Prov. & Epigr. (1867) 20 She is lost with an apple, and woon with a nut. 1647Cowley Mistr., The Tree ii, With Art as strange, as Homer in the Nut, Love in my Heart has Volumes put. 1660Howell Eng. Prov. 15 He may be gott by an Apple, and lost by a Nutt. 1722Wollaston Relig. Nat. viii. 161 They, who are not, or but lately, past their nuts, cannot be supposed to have any extent of knowledge. 1843Longfellow Sp. Stud. i. iv, Very little meat and a great deal of tablecloth... And more noise than nuts. 1895W. P. Ridge Minor Dialogues 82 An' the eldest gal she thinks she can play, and, if you'll believe me, she carn't play for nuts. 1899Times 25 Oct. 5/3 They can't shoot for nuts; go ahead. 1934A. Thirkell Wild Strawberries xi. 237 That Miss Stevenson can't play for nuts.
4. In allusions to the difficulty of cracking hard-shelled nuts:
a. A question difficult to answer, or a problem hard to solve.
1545Elyot Def. Gd. Wom. B iv b, Nowe knacke me that nut, maister Candidus. 1589Hay any Work (1844) 33 Like you any of these Nuts, John Canterbury? 1655Fuller Hist. Cambr. (1840) 95 Why was this Hall first visited?.. But the nut is not worth the cracking. 1705Hickeringill Priest-cr. iv. (1721) 236 Here's Nuts enough to employ their Teeth,..but..before they crack them they will break their Brains. 1801Huntington God the Guard. of Poor Ded. p. iii, Those providences which appear rather out of the common line are hard nuts in the mouth of a weak believer. 1858–61J. Brown Horæ Subs. (1863) 17 He especially liked his mental nuts. 1886Stevenson Dr. Jekyll i, It was a nut to crack for many, what these two could see in each other.
b. A matter or undertaking difficult to accomplish; a person hard to deal with or conciliate.
1662–7Cowley Of Plants Wks. (Grosart) II. 276/1 'Tis time that you these childish Sports forsake, Hymen for you has other Nuts to crack. 1745Franklin Lett. Wks. 1887 II. 16 Fortified towns are hard nuts to crack; and your teeth have not been accustomed to it. 1866Illustr. Lond. N. 9 June 549 Spain has..got some of her teeth broken in the attempt to crack a nut that was too hard for them. 1888J. Payn Myst. Mirbridge xxi, You will find Robert Morris a hard nut to crack.
c. (See quots. and sense 2.)
1828Scott F.M. Perth xvi, A huge calabash full of sack was offered to the lips of the supplicant, while this prince of revellers exhorted him,—‘Crack me this nut, and do it handsomely’. 1889N. & Q. 7th Ser. VIII. 437 When a fresh guest arrived he was met by the laird, who made him ‘crack a nut’, that is, drink a silver-mounted cocoanut-shell full of claret.
5. a. nuts to (a person): A source of pleasure or delight to one. Now slang.
1617Fletcher Mad Lover v. iv, But they are needful mischiefs, And such are Nuts to me. 1672Marvell Reh. Transp. i. 56 This story would have been Nuts to Mother Midnight. 1705in W. S. Perry Hist. Coll. Amer. Col. Ch. I. 147 Pray remember that our divisions will be nuts to the adversaries of the Church. 1768–74Tucker Lt. Nat. (1834) II. 484 Mischief is said to be nuts to some folks. 1805Naval Chron. XIII. 11 This was Nuts to many of them whose purses could afford it. 1840R. H. Dana Bef. Mast xxv, This was nuts to us, for we liked to have a Spaniard wet with salt water. 1891F. R. Stockton House Martha 208 To see me here would be simply nuts to her.
b. (See nut v. 2, quot. 1812.)
6. to be (dead) nuts on or upon, to set great store upon, to be devoted to, fond of, or delighted with (a person or thing). slang. Also const. about.
1785Grose Dict. Vulgar T. s.v. Well-hung, The blowen was nutts upon the Kiddey because he is well-hung. 1812J. H. Vaux Flash Dict. s.v., A man who is much gratified with any bargain he has made,..will express his self-satisfaction..by declaring that he is, or was, quite nuts upon himself. 1862Punch 29 Mar. 127/1 Johnny and Georgy were nuts on their pet.., and tabled their money freely. 1873W. Black Pr. Thule xi. 168 My aunt is awful nuts on Marcus Aurelius. 1894Sir J. D. Astley 50 Yrs. Life I. 152 He wasn't dead nuts on meeting with them. 1920S. Lewis Main Street xxiii. 280 Carrie's nuts about this Russian revolution. 1945E. Waugh Brideshead Revisited i. vii. 177, I was still nuts about Rex. 1975New Yorker 21 Apr. 39/1 You're nuts about me, right?
7. a. slang. The head (of a person).
1846Swell's Night Guide 76 Why, she's getting groggy on her pins, and if you don't pipe rumbo, she'll go prat over nut (head over heels). 1852J. Labern Pop. Comic Song Bk. 76 But vun chap flung a bunch of turnips, which nearly split Dick's nut in two. 1858Mayhew Paved w. Gold ii. xii. 189 The first round was soon terminated, for Jack got a ‘cracker on his nut’. 1894Clark Russell Good Ship Mohock II. 19 Let that chap there be ready with his cutlass to job me over the nut on my showing myself.
b. off one's nut, out of one's mind, insane. (See also quot. 1860.)
1860Slang Dict. (ed. 2) 182 To be ‘off one's nut’, to be in liquor. 1873M. E. Braddon Str. & Pilgr. ii. iii. 178 There are the men who go off their nuts by the time they're worth a million or so. 1893Fam. Herald 68/2 But is the master off his nut that he has her down here to stay?
c. pl. (as adj.): insane, crazy, ‘off one's head’.
1846Swell's Night Guide 75 Vhy, Owen..you knows it's no use of me being nuts, ven the donna's only nut crackers. 1914Jackson & Hellyer Vocab. Criminal Slang 62 Nuts,..As an adjective and adverb it signifies daft, mentally deranged. 1928C. Sandburg in Amer. Mercury Oct. 154 There was a screw loose somewhere in him, he had a kink and he was a Crank, he was nuts and belonged in a booby hatch. 1953[see gee int.2]. 1969I. & P. Opie Children's Games ii. 76 The person was..looney, nuts, a nit.
d. Phr. to do one's (or the) nut, to become angry, lose one's head; to be worked up about something; to be crazy.
1919W. H. Downing Digger Dialects 20 Do the nut, lose one's head. 1936J. Curtis Gilt Kid 231 The jane'd be bound to think he had done his nut. 1956[see choked ppl. a. 2]. 1957J. Osborne Entertainer xiii. 86 I'm doing me nut up here. 1958F. Norman Bang to Rights iii. 92 The twirl would do his nut and give up. 1959P. Bull I know Face xi. 199, I would be doing my ‘nut’ and my probable swansong for Auntie BBC. 1960News Chron. 16 Feb. 6/5 Been doing his nut about little Barbara for months, he had. 1961J. Stroud Touch & Go xv. 155 He's nearly done his nut over this daughter of his. 1972J. Brown Chancer v. 68, I thought what Grace would say, that she'd do her nut maybe. But she didn't blink an eyelid.
e. pl. Used as a derisive retort: nonsense, rubbish; I defy you. Freq. const. to.
1931M. E. Gilman Sob Sister 267 Nuts! You'll forget Nick the minute you smell your freedom. 1934J. O'Hara Appointment in Samarra iv. 86 ‘Nuts to you, sister,’ he said. 1936New Yorker 18 Jan. 20 With a hay-nonny-nonny and a nuts to you. 1938J. Curtis They drive by Night ix. 109 A feather shopping bag lay on a table. He stepped across towards it. As he stepped his golf-clubs rattled. Aw, nuts to that dog barking. 1946Wodehouse Joy in Morning ii. xii. 91 ‘If you think I've got the force of character to come back with a nolle prosequi—’ ‘With a what?’ ‘One of Jeeves' gags. It means roughly ‘Nuts to you!’’ 1974D. Francis Knock Down ii. 25 ‘I'll give you a hundred.’ ‘Nuts.’ ‘A hundred and fifty.’
f. the nuts, an excellent person or thing. U.S. slang.
1932Amer. Speech VII. 334 The nuts, denotes superlative quality. 1949W. Stevens Let. 9 Sept. (1967) 647 At the Museum of Modern Art they cultivate the idea that everything is the nuts. 1955W. Gaddis Recognitions ii. vii. 634 Get a little cross with mirrors in it, that would be the nuts if you want to suffer your way.
8. a. Applied disparagingly to persons.
1887Fenn Master of Ceremonies vii, He is a close old nut. 1896Harper's Mag. XCIII. 150/2 ‘Who's the old nut walking with your father-in-law?’ ‘He's my clerk’.
b. A certain type of Australian (see quots.).
1882A. J. Boyd Old Colonials 60 What is a Nut?.. Imagine a long, lank, lantern-jawed, whiskerless, colonial youth. Ibid. 65 He is a bully, a low, coarse, blasphemous blackguard—what is termed a regular colonial Nut.
c. A madman; a crank. slang (orig. U.S.).
1903R. L. McCardell Conversat. of Chorus Girl 15 ‘Circus Joe’..worked the nuts on the edge of the crowd. 1914Jackson & Hellyer Vocab. Criminal Slang 62 Nut, commonly current in all circles when the meaning is ‘loco’. 1919[see bughouse n. 1]. 1931D. Runyon Guys & Dolls (1932) 213, I am commencing to think this Count Saro is some kind of a nut, and is only speaking through his hat. 1936K. Mackenzie Living Rough xv. 216 We're sure a pair of nuts riding the outside over the hump this time of the year. 1960H. Pinter Room 118 You're not only a nut, you're a blind nut and you can get out the way you came. 1966T. Pynchon Crying of Lot 49 v. 107 Why worry, she worried; Nefastis is a nut, forget it, a sincere nut. 1973Nation Rev. (Melbourne) 31 Aug. 1444/1 The Worker Student Alliance, a bunch of nuts in Melbourne.
9. slang. A fashionable or showy young man of affected elegance; a ‘young blood’, fop, or masher. Cf. nutty a. 4 and knut.
1904in N. & Q. (1913) 26 July 78/1 I'm one of the nuts, one of the nibs. 1913Punch 12 Feb. 115/1 Spring socks will be black and Spring ties a quiet blue. A strike of nuts is expected at any moment. 1915Kipling in Nash's & Pall Mall Mag. Oct. 131/2 Winchmore, the youngest, was more on the lines of a conventional nut. 1920W. J. Locke House of Baltazar xvii. 205 I've a jolly good mind to set him up regardless, like a pre-war nut—with solid silver boot-trees and the rest to correspond. 1920R. Macaulay Potterism i. iv. 44 He always looked the same, calm, unruffled, tidy, the exquisite nut. 1923Other Lands Oct. 3/3 The last named continue to be marks of the ‘nut’.
II.
10. A small metal projection upon a spindle (of a clock, etc.) furnished with teeth, and engaging in a cog-wheel; a small spur-wheel.
1426–7in Archæologia (1857) XXXVII. 25 Thomas Clock⁓maker received 7s. for amending of the note and spindle. 1567in Antiquary (1888) Apr. 169 For makyng a nutte for the dyall, iijd. 1648Wilkins Math. Magic i. xx. (1707) 82 Let us imagine every Wheel in this following Figure to have a hundred Teeth in it, and every Nut ten. 1677Moxon Mech. Exerc. iii. 45 Before a revolution of the Wheel be perform'd, it would go off from the length of the Teeth of the Nut. 1775Ash, Nut, a small protuberance with indentures answering to the teeth of a wheel. 1825J. Nicholson Operat. Mechanic 130 A spur nut a, and a bevelled nut b;..the nut a works into the spur-wheel.
†11. A projection from the lock of a crossbow, serving to detain the string until released by the trigger. Obs.
1528Paynell Salerne's Regim. Q ij b, The iij nutte, that is, the nutte of the crosse bowe, is dethe, for the crosse bowe sleethe men. 1578Lanc. Wills (Chetham Soc.) II. 59 My crossebowe wthout the nutte. 1611Cotgr., La noix d'vne arbaleste, the nut of a crossebow. 1674tr. Scheffer's Lapland 98 They..draw the string up to the nut made of bone in the handle, with an iron hook they wear at their girdle.
12. a. A small block of wood, iron, etc., pierced, and wormed with a female screw; used to make a bolt fast, or to allow of its adjustment. Also fig.
Cf. nottes..et escruues in a Lille document of 1597 cited by Godefroi, s.v. Nottet.
1611Cotgr., Couplot de bois, a woodden sole, or Nut for a Scrue; the foot of a Scrue. 1677Moxon Mech. Exerc. i. 5 The Nut or Screw Box hath also a square Worm, and is brazed into the round Box. 1735J. Price Stone-Br. Thames 7 Iron Hooks should be let into their Flanks, and screw'd into Nuts. 1815J. Smith Panorama Sci. & Art I. 62 A screw with a button head, tightened at the back with a nut. 1894S. R. Bottone Electr. Instr. 173 The nut, of course, works against the springs... When the nut is loosened the spring causes g to rise. 1911Rep. Labour & Social Conditions in Germany (Tariff Reform League) III. 39 When we get our nuts screwed a little tighter we shall be able to look after our own industries and mind our own business. 1973‘J. Patrick’ Glasgow Gang Observed x. 88 Asked why so few boys over twenty remained in the Fleet [gang], Tim replied: ‘They used tae be in it but they've screwed the nut.’ Ibid. 235 Screw, as in ‘screw the nut’, to become sensible, to ‘get wise’ to oneself, to pull oneself together.
b. The portion of a wooden printing-press in which the screw plays.
1642Ordin. Lords & Comm. Prohib. Print. 6 The Printers Nuts and Spindles which they find so employed. 1683Moxon Mech. Exerc., Printing xi. ⁋1 To preserve the Worms of the Spindle and Nut from wearing each other out the faster. 1824J. Johnson Typogr. II. 507 The brass nut in which the screw of the spindle works. 1841Penny Cycl. XXI. 111/1 In the upper cross-bar or head..a nut is firmly secured. The screw works up and down in this nut.
c. The contrivance at the lower end of a violin-bow, or any similar instrument, by which the horse-hair may be relaxed or tightened.
1662Playford Skill Mus. ii. (1674) 101 Hold the Bow betwixt the ends of your Thumb and your Forefinger, an Inch below the Nut. 1836Dubourg Violin ix. (1878) 280 So regulated as to cause the nearest approach made by the stick to the hair to be exactly in the middle, between the head and the nut. 1884Heron-Allen Violin-making 93 A bow..with a properly constructed head and nut to receive the hair.
d. fig. in phr. (the) nuts and bolts, the practical, basic elements, or the mechanics, of a situation or thing. Freq. attrib.
1960Times 9 Feb. 11/4 When we talk about technicians—the ‘nuts-and-bolts boys’—we are all right there. 1967Observer 30 Apr. 11/8 A..keen-eyed Army colonel..talks to you about ‘the nuts and bolts’ of the programme. 1971Times 10 June 16/6 His preference was for journalism. He learnt the nuts and bolts of his profession with the Montreal Gazette. 1972Guardian 10 June 11/7 Most of some hundreds of recommendations in the action plan and its annexe, where the nuts and bolts are, will go through. 1973T. Allbeury Choice of Enemies xvii. 83 There are two kinds of security that we cover... A bit of cigarette ash on a magnetic tape could screw up a whole pay-roll..but..that's pretty well a nuts and bolts area for us. We know it inside out. 1974Times 22 Feb. 14 The electors are not to be despised for this conspicuous lack of interest in the nuts and bolts of politics. 1974Socialist Worker 7 Dec. 9/6 There was also a tendency to go very easy on replies to those delegates who urged the conference to adopt a fuller and finer programme rather than discuss the nuts and bolts of trying to build in the real world.
13. Naut. A part of a ship's anchor (see quots.).
1627Capt. Smith Seaman's Gram. vii. 29 At the head of the Shanke there is a hole.., and in it a Ring, wherein is the Nut to which there is fast fixed a Stocke of wood crossing the Flookes. 1688Holme Armoury iii. xv. (Roxb.) 29/1 The nutt, the round part under the eye, to which the stock is fixt. 1769Falconer Dict. Marine (1780), Nuts of the anchor, two little prominencies, appearing like short square bars of iron, fixed across the upper part of the anchor-shank, to secure the stock thereof in it's place. 1867Smyth Sailor's Word-bk. 502 Nuts, two projections either raised or welded on the square part of the shank [etc.].
14. a. (See quot. 1876.)
1698Phil. Trans. XX. 80 The Frets are nearer to one another toward the Bridge, and wider toward the Nut or Head of a Viol. 1771Encycl. Brit. III. 323/2 An equal division of a string between either the nut and bridge, or stop and bridge. 1876Stainer & Barrett Dict. Mus. Terms 316 Nut, the fixed bridge formed by a slight prominence or ridge at the upper end of the strings of instruments of the violin and guitar family.
b. to make the nut: (see quot.).
1899Allbutt's Syst. Med. VIII. 12 The violoncello players..who seek to get high-pitched notes from their instruments by shortening the strings by violent pressure with the out⁓side of the phalangeal joint of the left thumb, while the fingers are engaged in stopping the string lower down (a manœuvre known as ‘making the nut’).
15. The central part of a potter's wheel.
1735Dict. Polygraph. s.v. Pottery, The potters wheel consists principally in the nut, which is a beam or axis, whose foot or pivot plays perpendicularly on a free-stone sole or bottom.
III. †16. The glans penis. Obs.
1577tr. Bullinger's Decades (1592) 358 There is a skinne which doth..couer..the nut or foreparte of a mannes yarde. 1611Cotgr., Pennache de mer..at one end resembles a feather, and th' vncouered nut of a mans yard at th' other. 1687A. Lovell tr. Thevenot's Trav. i. 42 After they have cut off the fore-skin, [they] slit with their nails the skin also that covers the nut. 1758J. S. tr. Le Dran's Observ. Surg. (1771) Dictionary, Balanus, the Glands or Nut of the Yard.
†17.
a. = Pope's eye. Obs.
1611Cotgr., Oeil de Iudas, the Nut, or Fryers peece of a Leg of Mutton. 1682Gibson Anat. iv. (1697) App., A gland which we..call in sheep the Nut or Pope's eye.
†b. A small knob (of meat). Obs. rare—1.
1769J. Skeat Art Cookery 12 A sham Tortoise... is made of a calf's liver. There is a small nut of liver that hangs to it, which serves for the head.
c. dial. The pancreas; also, part of the caul.
c1816Yng. Woman's Companion 2 The liver, lights, heart, nut, and milt. 1893P. H. Emerson Eng. Lagoons xvii. 76 Jim..had bought a pig's fry... I ate of all parts—the ‘nut’ and the ‘mint’..were really good. Ibid., The apron (omentum), that's nice..; but the kell, that's the thing, and the nut of that is the sweetest part of all.
18. pl. Coal in small lumps.
1870Eng. Mech. 18 Feb. 563/3 We have been using silk⁓stone nuts. 1883Gresley Gloss. Coal-mining 175 Nuts, small lumps of coal which will pass through a screen the bars of which vary in width apart between ½ inch and 2½ inches.
19. A small rounded biscuit or cake. Only in doughnut, gingerbread or spice nut, q.v.
20. U.S. slang. The amount of money required for a venture; overhead costs. Hence transf., any sum of money.
1912A. H. Lewis Apaches N.Y. 201 Every day I'm open puts me fifty dollars on th' nut. 1914Jackson & Hellyer Vocab. Criminal Slang 62 Nut,..used by grafters whose operations involve an investment to signify an expense incurred in connection with a venture. 1933Sun (Baltimore) 28 Jan. 16/4 The difficulty of ‘making the nut’, the term applied to accumulating the rental charge due each night to the owner of the cab. 1935Amer. Mercury June 230/1 Nut, concession charges for booking a joint; expenses. 1936Amer. Speech XI. 219 He [sc. the producer] decides that in order to open the show a certain amount of money will be necessary. This amount is the production nut. 1948Sun (Baltimore) 7 Aug. 9/2 In any event the ‘nut’ will be close to $400,000, counting fighters, rent and promotional expenses. 1955Publ. Amer. Dial. Soc. xxiv. 37 Recreation, such as gambling..and other cultural pursuits dear to the hearts of pickpockets, will cost extra... All this is counted as nut..and anything they make over and above this they consider income. 1956H. Gold Man who was not with It (1965) xviii. 159, I was getting a nut of cash, and it felt good. 1962J. B. Priestley Margin Released vi. 202 In the Thirties, when we could produce Laburnum Grove..for about {pstlg}800..the weekly running costs—the ‘get-out’ or ‘nut’—were round about the same figure, theatre and all. 1970Daily Tel. 27 Apr. 3 New York police have their own secret slang to deal with their illegal business... ‘Nut’ is a cash bribe. 1972Publishers' Weekly 14 Feb. 60/1 He submitted a strong script that led Fox to substitute color film and wide screen for black-and-white and the conventional small-screen ratio, and to raise the nut to $400,000.
IV. attrib. and Comb.
21. Attributive:
a. In sense 1, as nut-bunch, nut-bush, nut-flower, nut-fruit, nut-garden, nut-grove, etc.; (sense 8 c), as nut alley, nut-doctor, nut-farm.
1935A. J. Pollock Underworld Speaks 81/2 *Nut alley, prison insane ward.
1877Horton in Moloney Forestry W. Afr. (1887) 38 The *nut bunches are cut down from the trees.
1483Cath. Angl. 257/2 A *Nutte buske, corvletum.
1955A. Huxley Let. 7 May (1969) 742 Next week..I go to Atlantic City to attend the Psychiatrists' Assn. meeting... I shall arrange to meet the boys on my return from the *nut-doctors.
a1940F. Scott Fitzgerald Last Tycoon (1949) i. 12 Some mystic..spouting tripe that'd land him on a *nut-farm anywhere outside of California.
1648Hexham 11, Note⁓bloemen, *Nut-flowers.
1850Mrs. Browning Poems II. 262 They listen For..*nut-fruit falling from the trees.
1535Coverdale Song. Sol. vi. 11, I wente downe in to the *nutt garden, to se what grew by the brokes.
1872Calverley Fly Leaves (1903) 27 In the *nutgroves of Morocco.
c1000Sax. Leechd. II. 34 Ᵹenim *hnutcyrnla & hwæte corn. 1398Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xvii. cviii. (Bodl. MS.), Wtin is þe notte curnel þt is sauorie & ful swete. 1460–70Bk. Quintessence 23 Putte þerine..note-kirnelis, fyn triacle, radisch. 1530Palsgr. 254/1 Pyll of a nutte curnell.
1681Grew Musæum ii. §i. i. 200 A small Orbicular Fruit, as it seems, of the *Nut-kind.
1816Kirby & Sp. Entomol. xxv. (1818) II. 416 The beetle to which the *nut-maggot is transformed.
1765Museum Rust. III. 285 In the *nut season fences are pulled in pieces for the fruit by all the boys and girls in the neighbourhood.
1648Hexham 11, Een Note-booste, a *Nut-skin or Husk.
1845Disraeli Sybil (1863) 135 He cut my eyelid open once with a *nut⁓stick.
1886W. J. Tucker E. Europe 367 The fourth course was a *nut tart, very large, very rich, very sweet.
1496Fysshynge w. Angle (1883) 29 The bayte that bredith on an oke, and the *notworme.
b. In sense 12, as nut-frame, nut-iron, nut-key, nut-sling.
1711W. Sutherland Shipbuilder's Assist. 153 Nut-slings of the Guns. 1825J. Nicholson Operat. Mechanic 443 The nut-frame should carry three flat pieces of wood or iron. Ibid. 338 Scrap or nut-iron, consisting of old nails, screws, nuts, and pieces of that description. 1844H. Stephens Bk. Farm I. 425 The head and handle are forged in one piece.., the latter part being formed into a nut-key.
c. In sense 18, as nut-coal, nut-slack.
1869Mrs. Whitney We Girls vi. (1873) 129 A sprinkle of small, shiny nut-coal. 1870Eng. Mech. 18 Mar. 661/2 Coke (made..of nut-slack riddled).
22. a. Objective and obj. genitive, as nut-catcher, nut-eater, nut-gathering, nut-seller. Also nut-bearing, nut-grown, nut-questing.
1877L. H. Morgan Anc. Society (1907) I. ii. 20 In fruit and *nut-bearing forests under a tropical sun, we are accustomed..to regard our progenitors as having commenced their existence. 1952A. G. L. Hellyer Sanders' Encycl. Gardening (ed. 22) 130 Corylus (Cob-nut; Filbert)... Hardy deciduous nut-bearing shrubs.
1746Mrs. Carter in Pennington Life (1808) I. 105 My fellow *nut-catcher and I have another wood in reserve where we hope for better success.
1883D. Cook P. Foster's Daughter i, He seeks the *nut-eater.
1876H. H. Thomas Mem. D. Thomas i. 4 Delighting in country rambles, in *nut-gathering and bathing.
1809Campbell Gert. Wyom. i. iii, And playful squirrel on his *nut-grown tree.
1922Joyce Ulysses 535 Who left his *nutquesting classmates to seek our shade?
1648Hexham 11, Een note-menger, a *Nut-seller.
b. Similative, as nut-deaf, nut-grey, nut-like, nut-sweet.
1828Blackw. Mag. XXIII. 806 Old men are our aversion, so *nut-deaf are they, so sand-blind.
1797Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3) VI. 220/2 To give an example of the manner of producing these colours we shall take the *nut-grey.
1830Lindley Nat. Syst. Bot. 181 Seeds *nut-like. 1874A. Gray Less. Bot. 469 The 2 nut-like seeds partly sunk in excavations at the base of the scale.
1586Bright Melanch. xviii. 110 For of it selfe [the blood] being *nutsweete or milke⁓sweete, by this heate becommeth sugar or hony sweete.
23. Special combs.: † nut-beam, a nut-tree; † nut-boy, a boy who gathers nuts; † nut-breaker = nut-cracker 3 b; nut-butter, a substitute for butter obtained from the oil of nuts; nut (milk) chocolate, (milk) chocolate containing nuts; nut college U.S. slang = nut-house (below); nut-cut, slang (see quot.); nut cutlet, a portion of meat-substitute made from nuts and various other ingredients and shaped like a cutlet; nut factory U.S. slang, = nut-house (below); nut food, food prepared from nuts; so nut-fooder; † nut-head, the plant Tormentil, which has nut-like seeds; nut-house slang, a mental hospital; † nut-housing, a nutshell; nut-meat, the kernel of a nut; nut-Monday, the first Monday in August, locally observed as a holiday; † nut-mouse, the dormouse; † nut-mussel (?); nut-palm, an Australian palm (Cycas media) which bears edible nuts; † nut-penny (cf. nut-silver); nut-pine, one of several species of pine producing edible seeds, native to south-western North America and the Rocky Mountains; † nut-plum (see quot. 1601); nut runner, a power tool for tightening nuts; nut-rush, a kind of sedge with nut-like seeds; † nut-silver, a yearly payment formerly customary in Northumberland; nut-steak, a portion of meat-substitute made from nuts and shaped like a steak; nut-wood, ? walnut wood.
c1000Sax. Leechd. II. 42 *Hnutbeames rinde seaw..drype on eare. 1412–13Abingdon Rolls (Camden) 75 Et de vs de j notebem vendito in Gardino hoc anno.
1653D. Osborne Lett. (1903) 29 She wears twenty strung upon a ribbon, like the *nut boys play withal.
1778Pennant Tour Wales (1883) I. 29 Excepting the Caryocatactes or *nut-breaker, I do not recollect any very uncommon bird to have visited this parish.
1907N.E.D. s.v. nucoline, *Nut-butter. 1908Westm. Gaz. 5 Aug. 2/3 Vegetarians cannot expect to be allowed to call their butter-substitute ‘nut butter’ when other people's butter-substitutes are called ‘margarine’. 1918C. A. Mitchell Edible Oils & Fats ix. 117 Deodorised coconut oil is used in the preparation of both margarine and ‘nut butter’. 1961C. Loewenfeld tr. Bircher's Eating your Way to Health ii. iii. 246 Nut butter is a good and easily digested substitute for those who do not like, or should not have, butter. 1971J. Hewitt N.Y. Times Natural Foods xv. 393 Nut butter spread... Place the nuts, sunflower seeds, kernels and seeds in an electric blender and blend until fine. 1975Times 14 Feb. 9/7 They bake daily... They also make various nut butters.
1918–19T. Eaton & Co. Catal. Fall & Winter 385/2 Eaton's *Nut Milk Chocolate... Each bar made from fine chocolate, milk and *nuts. 1926–7Army & Navy Stores Catal. 54/1 Chocolate..Nut (1/4 lb. pkts.). 1932R. Lehmann Invitation to Waltz iii. vi. 215, I preferred to spend the afternoon on the schoolroom sofa reading East Lynne and eating nut-milk chocolate. 1936‘J. Tey’ Shilling for Candles xi. 128 ‘Nut or plain?’ ‘What?’ ‘The chocolate.’ 1955M. Allingham Beckoning Lady xvi. 228 Offering Westy half a bar of nut chocolate. 1960Sunday Express 25 Dec. 13/3 When nut milk chocolate was 2d. a bar.
1931Amer. Speech VII. 111 *Nut college, an insane asylum. 1951in Wentworth & Flexner Dict. Amer. Slang (1960) 360/2 He has been recalled by the nut college to join Napoleon..and Shakespeare, inventing paper dolls!
1874Slang Dict. 239 *Nut-cut, roguish, mischievous.
1908F. A. George Vegetarian Cookery ix. 113 *Nut cutlets... Make into cutlet shapes. Egg and crumb. Fry in deep fat. 1925D. H. Lawrence Let. ? 17 Dec. (1962) II. 871 So Sonya will never cook us another goose, only marmite pie and nut-cutlet. 1959‘M. Innes’ Hare sitting Up ii. vi. 112 Didn't I say something about Burgundy? Capital with nut cutlets. 1965J. B. Priestley Lost Empires ii. ii. 115 Mr Foster-Jones makes Health Foods... He's probably brought a case of date sandwiches and nut cutlets with him. 1973Times 10 Apr. 14/1 You can no longer get nut cutlets... What you get instead now are nut rissoles.
1915Recruiter's Bull. (U.S. Marine Corps., N.Y.) Oct. 15/1 It would have been impossible to have found a man any other place than a ‘*nut-factory’ who would voluntarily have told the commanding officer that he was a deserter. 1929J. Callahan Man's Grim Justice xiii. 156 They should have been in the ‘nut factory’..the insane department. 1939J. H. Chase No Orchids for Miss Blandish i. 33 Johnnie was a rummy... Drink had rotted him, and he was only two jumps ahead of the nut-factory.
1905Vegetarian Messenger Apr. 105, I will send any readers who wish for it an address where *nut-foods can be had guaranteed free of pea-nuts.
1917N. Douglas South Wind x. 142 He will be an anti-vivisectionist, a *nut-fooder, costume-maniac.., or a spiritualist into the bargain.
c1265Voc. Plants in Wr.-Wülcker 557 Turmentine, i. *nutehede.
1929Amer. Speech IV. 343 *Nut House, an insane asylum. 1936‘P. Quentin’ Puzzle for Fools i. 6 It wasn't a sanatorium really. It was just an expensive nuthouse for people like me who had lost control. 1953W. Burroughs Junkie (1972) 10, I decided I was not going to like the Army and copped out on my nut-house record... The nut-house doctors had never heard of Van Gogh. 1958‘N. Blake’ Penknife in my Heart iii. 42 Miriam drives you into the nut-house. 1973‘H. Howard’ Highway to Murder xi. 141 Supposing the plan succeeded and his wife got stuck away in a nut-house? 1974Radio Times 24 Oct. 11/2 Clothing for the Government, prisons and nut-'ouses—what is it they call 'em now?
1483Cath. Angl. 257/2 A *Nutte husynge, nucleus.
1913A. B. Emerson R. Fielding at Snow Camp 102 The three boys stuck to their work..until there was a great bowl of *nutmeats. 1967Economist 9 Sept. 892/1 Kukui nut-meat burning gently in a shell. 1974Aiken (S. Carolina) Standard 22 Apr. 8-A/5 The Viennese desserts called Torten are sometimes made with finely ground nut⁓meats without the inclusion of any flour.
1867Q. Rev. CXXII. 380 ‘*Nut-Monday’ is still a great occasion in Kendal.
1607Topsell Four-f. Beasts (1658) 423 Of the *Nut-mouse, Hasel-mouse, or Filbird-mouse.
1705Petiver in Phil. Trans. XXV. 1954 Chama Carolina... This Shell resembles our *Nut-Muscle.
1889J. H. Maiden Usef. Native Pl. 21 ‘*Nut Palm.’.. Employed by the aborigines as food. An excellent farina is obtained from it.
1702in J. C. Hodgson Hist. Northumbld. (1904) VII. 316 The rent called *Nutt pennys.
1845J. C. Frémont Rep. Expl. Exped. Rocky Mountains 221 A pine tree..which Dr. Torrey has described as a new species, under the name of pinus monophyllus; in popular language, it might be called the *nut pine. 1851Mayne Reid Scalp Hunt. xxvi. 190 We cachéd them [the horses] in a thicket of nut-pine. 1872Raymond Mines & Mining 11 The Cuyanne Mountain is thickly covered with nut-pine timber. 1896C. H. Shinn Story of the Mine 63 The nut⁓pine trees were soon cut down. 1949Collingwood & Brush Knowing your Trees 18/1 This is one of four nut pines of the Southwest. 1969T. H. Everett Living Trees of World 50/2 The piñon or Mexican stone pine (P. cembroides) is small and spreading and, like its variety P. c. edulis, the nut pine, produces delicious edible seeds or ‘nuts’. Both are natives of the southwestern United States and Mexico, the nut pine extending north to Wyoming.
1601Holland Pliny I. 437 Those plums..that are graffed in Nut-tree stocks..retain the face and forme still of the mother graffe, but they get the taste of the stock where⁓in they are set..: of them both they carry the name, and are called *nut-plums. 1611Florio, Nocipruna, the Nut⁓plumbe.
1958R. M. Barnes Motion & Time Study (ed. 4) xvii. 288 The multiple-spindle air-operated *nut runner..is used to tighten all five wheel nuts at once. 1966Engineers' Digest Dec. 97/2 Suitable for light duties and often employed with power screwdrivers and nutrunners, another type of torque limiting device utilizes a spring-loaded steel ball.
1874A. Gray Less. Bot. 570 Scleria, *Nut-Rush.
1569in J. C. Hodgson Hist. Northumbld. (1904) VII. 306 All the tenants pay yearly by ancient custom..*Nutsylver.
1908Daily Chron. 2 Sept. 3/4 High thinking is still nourished upon the banana and the *nut-steak. 1922Joyce Ulysses 163 Why do they call that thing they gave me nutsteak? Nutarians, Fruitarians. To give you the idea you are eating rumpsteak. 1966K. Giles Provenance of Death iv. 103 The man..is a vegetarian... He had a nut steak.
1701C. Wolley Jrnl. New York (1860) 52 They had Needles of Wood, for which *Nut-wood was esteemed best. 1898Daily News 15 Feb. 9/6 Tenders are also invited..for the delivery of 6,000 rough nut-wood stocks for carbines.
24. Passing into adj. Stupid, insane (cf. senses 7, 8, and 21 a).
1919Sci. Amer. 23 Aug. 184/1 Other ideas, no more revolutionary and no more absurd from the standpoint of entrenched orthodoxy, never graduate from the ‘nut’ class. 1922U. Sinclair They call me Carpenter xix. 66, I just want to know where he got his nut ideas. 1922S. Lewis Babbitt ii. 17 Ever since somebody slipped up and let you out of college..you been pulling these nut conversations about what-nots and so-on-and-so-forths. 1966T. Pynchon Crying of Lot 49 iii. 48 ‘You one of these right-wing nut outfits?’ inquired the diplomatic Metzger.
▪ II. † nut, n.2 Obs.
[OE. nyt.]
Use, worth.
c1205Lay. 13428 A he seide þat Bruttes neoren noht to nuttes, ah he seide þat þa Peohtes weoren gode cnihtes.
▪ III. † nut, a. Obs.
Also 4 neȝt.
[OE. nyt. The form neȝt is for net, riming with pet, pit.]
Useful.
c1205Lay. 9470 Wel is þe man nut þe sæhtnesse wurcheð. c1315Shoreham iv. 136 Ine felþe þou schelt lygge, Þou ert nauȝt elles neȝt.
▪ IV. nut, v.|nʌt|
[f. nut n.1]
1. intr. To seek for, or gather, nuts; esp. in phr. to go (a) nutting.
1604Dekker Honest Wh. Wks. 1873 II. 84 Whither gad you? A nutting forsooth. c1670Wood Life (O.H.S.) I. 176 A. W. went to angle with William Staine of Mert. coll. to Wheately bridge and nutted in Shotover by the way. 1693Luttrell Brief Rel. (1857) III. 197 Last week 3 clippers were taken in the very act in a wood.., being discovered by a boy a nutting. 1824Mrs. Cameron Marten & his Scholars vii. 45 A set of wild chaps ticed me..to go a⁓nutting with them. 1855Macaulay Hist. Eng. xxi. IV. 624 A schoolboy who goes nutting in the wood of a neighbour. 1879‘E. Garrett’ House by Works I. 47 When he and I used to go nutting in Culstead.
2. trans. To curry favour with, to court (a person). slang. (Cf. nut n.1 6.)
1812J. H. Vaux Flash Dict., Nut, to please a person by any little act of assiduity, by a present, or by flattering words, is called nutting him; as the present, &c., by which you have gratified them is termed a nut. 1823Grose's Dict. Vulgar T. (Egan) s.v. Nuts, The cove's nutting the blowen; the man is trying to please the girl.
3. slang.
a. To think, to use one's head. Freq. const. out, also up. (Cf. nut n.1 7.)
1919W. H. Downing Digger Dialects 36 Nut it out, think it out. 1925Fraser & Gibbons Soldier & Sailor Words 213 Nut out, to, to think over. Consider. To use one's head. 1951D. Stivens Jimmy Brockett 168, I did a bit of hard nutting over my plans for trotting. 1953K. Tennant Joyful Condemned iv. 38 Just nut that out. 1962A. Upfield Will of Tribe xix. 180, I asked him how he nutted up the idea. 1965M. Shadbolt Among Cinders xiii. 112, I haven't nutted out what I'm going to say about the poultry. 1971R. Dentry Encounter at Kharmel (1973) v. 81 I've been nutting the whole thing out... There's no future in it for you.
b. To butt with the head; to hit a blow on the head. Also ˈnutting vbl. n.
1937Partridge Dict. Slang 575/1 Nut,..to punch on the head. 1963T. & P. Morris Pentonville xi. 241 Few prison fights are conducted in accordance with Queensberry Rules; fists, heads (for the painful infliction of injury to the opponent's nose by ‘nutting’), teeth and nails may be used at any time. 1966D. Skirrow It won't get you Anywhere xiv. 61, I shot my head backwards in time to miss the nutting that was coming... The tearaway special nowadays is to hug tight, rupture his kidneys and nut him hard. 1971J. Mandelkau Buttons xiii. 145 He took it off and as I was getting out of mine he nutted me in the head. |